Monday, June 22, 2015

Monday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time, Cycle B - June 15, 2015

Monday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time
June 15, 2015      8:30am


Jesus’ sayings today lead me to several reflections.

First, Jesus says, “When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn and offer the other one to him as well.”
Here I do not think Jesus means that we should allow ourselves to be abused or disrespected, physically or verbally.
Instead, we have the right and the responsibility to protect ourselves and remove ourselves from situations like that.
I have especially advised women who are in abusive situations to get out and take their children with them.
Jesus does not will or intend this kind of thing.

Second, Jesus refers to the law of the early Hebrew Scriptures, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”
He is not teaching this or even reaffirming it.
Instead, Jesus quotes that law because it was an advance.
It limited the amount of retribution you could take for an offense.
So if someone hits you in the eye, according to that law, you could hit them in the eye, but you could not do more than that – like shooting them or something like that.

Third, what Jesus is really doing here is raising the bar higher.
He doesn’t want us even to take an eye for an eye.
Instead, he wants us to refrain from anything that is vengeful or destructive.
He wants us to deal with our anger and hurt in some other way, to process our feelings, and then not act out of them in vengeance.
He wants us to act constructively.

And fourth, underneath Jesus’ teaching is the great truth than real strength lies in restraint and not in hitting back.
Self-esteem comes not from diminishing others as they have diminished me, but rather from living out of a center within where God is present.
We realize our innate value and acquire a sense of this not by beating up another in return, but by responding to another as Jesus himself would do.


So, a challenging passage with much to reflect on today!