Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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If you have ever played a video game, then you know that there is always a series of levels.
The first level is the easiest, and the final level is the most difficult.
Sometimes it takes multiple tries before you succeed in beating that final level… but if you do, then you’ve mastered the game.
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If Christianity were likened to a video game, then today’s Gospel would be the final level: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
If you can freely do this, then you’ve mastered Christianity.
Have I mastered Christianity?
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Most of us likely have not. There are some mountains too tall for us to climb, humanly speaking. Forgiving those who’ve hurt us can be one of them.
But anything is possible when our heart is absorbed in Christ. Suddenly, he does the loving and forgiving through us.
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This is how the game is mastered, so to speak, by walking the path of surrender until, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ living in me” (Galatians 2:20).
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Image credits: (1) Kashmir Observer (2) Sermons by Chris Goring (3) Gentle Christian Parenting
Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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This is, perhaps, the oldest law in the world: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
Before it was written in stone, it seems it was written into our fallen human nature.
When someone strikes you, strike them back. When someone speaks ill of you, speak ill of them. If someone is angry with you, be angry with them. However you must, get even.
It’s a cyclical flow of revenge; a guarantee of destroying relationships – and by extension, the world itself. As Ghandi once said, “If we all lived by that rule – an eye for an eye – then we’d all be blind.”
And yet… how many of us are to some extent blind? Guilty of following that ancient law of revenge.
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In today’s Gospel, Jesus offers a new teaching.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye,’ but I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.”
Think of someone who’s struck you on your right cheek, as it were. Now imagine turning the left.
Doing so can leave us stunned, feeling tense within, as if such a standard is not only difficult, but also ludicrous. Impossible.
Why would Jesus insist on such a standard?
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An easy way out is to say, “Well, he’s God. Forgiveness comes easy for him.”
But what about us?
“Offering the other cheek” is a type of olive branch; a path to peace. It means preferring reconciliation to revenge.
Turning the other cheek also prevents someone else’s sin from becoming ours. If someone insults you in anger and you return the favor, then two people are now angry. But if you brush it off – or let it go – then their anger will not become yours.
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This is not an easy Gospel passage to digest. Nor is it meant to be. Perhaps the only way to live it is to reach that point in our journeys where we can say with Saint Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ living in me.”
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Image credits: (1) Threadless (2) Society for the Blind (3) Genesis Bible Fellowship Church
Jesus said to the crowds: “This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and through it all the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.”
He said, “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it. Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Just behind the church, there’s a small square section of yard hiding behind a white picket fence. It’s my “Sunday sanctuary”; the place I retire to after all Masses have been celebrated; my little garden.
Inside the periphery, there are a few different types of plants, bushes, and one big cherry tree. My tulips have come and gone. My azaleas have peeked. My roses are in full bloom.
Then there are my canna lilies.
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Canna lilies are “late bloomers,” the last to rise and fall in the growing season. At their best, they’ll shoot up to six feet high, offering pops of orange and red. Humming birds love them. I do, too.
There’s only one caveat: cannas take forever to grow.
The achiever in me is often tempted to water them for hours, to douse them in Miracle Grow, even to kneel down and shout at them, “Grow!”
But that’s just not how nature works, is it? Those cannas – in fact all of nature – work on their own time.
I do my part each season – I’ll dig up the bulbs in November and re-plant them towards the end of May. Then nature does the rest.
My garden reminds me: I’m really good at doing my part, even to the point of overdoing it. But not as good as trusting nature to do its part.
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Can’t we see something of our relationship with God in that?
There are two sides – ours and God’s.
We know what we want and we’re willing to work for it. But when faith is involved, personal responsibility is only half of the equation. We do our part – we work, we pray, we listen.
Then we rest and let God do his.
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In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives a parable about a sower, seed, and a bountiful harvest.
A sower goes out and scatters seed across his land. Once he’s finished, he goes to sleep. Then he rises day after day biding his time. “Through it all,” Jesus says, “the seed would sprout and grow, the sower knows not how.”
Eventually, when the harvest comes, the farmer reaps what he’s sowed.
Notice he does three simple things: He scatters his seed. He waits. He reaps.
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You and I know how to do steps one and three.
We know how to work. We know how to reap.
But what about step number two, waiting???
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This is the part where God intervenes.
Once the seed has been scattered, it slowly sinks into the ground, germinates, and takes root. Without any effort of ours, nature does its thing – the seed and the soil intermingle, mysteriously working together until the shoots come up.
We don’t need to do anything else until the harvest is ready.
Similarly, once we place ourselves – or a particular intention – into God’s hands, there’s nothing else we need to do, but wait.
Allow God to work, much like the sower who scatters his seed. Notice the Lord never describes the sower as anxious, stressed, or depressed; he simply does his part, then he lets nature take its course.
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What are the “seeds” in my life? What people or things have I placed in God’s hands? Or what do I need to entrust to God’s hands?
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It could be my career, my marriage, my future, my children’s future, or the life of this parish.
In every case, you and I are willing to work. Taking personal responsibility is critical.
But after we’ve scattered the seed – after we’ve placed something or someone into God’s hands – we must give the seed the opportunity to grow.
Not in our time, but in God’s.
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When he was pope, Saint John XXIII used to end his day with a simple prayer: “Lord, I’ve done what I can. But it’s your Church. Now I’m going to bed. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
May we take that same type of attitude this week.
Work hard. Scatter the seed. But then rest, trusting that once something is in God’s hands, it will grow and bear much fruit – thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold.
