Homilies7th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: LOVE OUR ENEMIES, PRAY OUR PERSECUTORSMt 5:38-48
I HAVE READ a moving story about Mrs. Hannah. She became a widow for quite some time, and living with her was her only daughter. One evening, her daughter did not come home from school. But Mrs Hannah thought positively. “My daughter must have slept over at a friend’s house”, she thought. On the following day, she heard news that a student was brutally raped and killed. At that time, she never pondered that the victim was her own daughter. But in the afternoon of that day, she had to face and accept the sad truth. That the girl who was raped and killed was her daughter. She was devastated. The killer was caught and imprisoned. Mrs. Hannah was a religious woman. She went to the holy Mass almost every day. One day, she felt uncomfortable because, while she was at the Mass, she had the feeling of hatred toward the murderer. Days had gone, and one day after the holy mass, she was led to go to a Catholic bookstore and she bought a Bible. At her home, she got a piece of paper, and wrote the words, “I forgive you.” Then she went to the prison, met the murderer of her daughter, and handed the Bible. The prisoner was caught by surprise. He received the Bible, and read what was written on a sheet of paper. There and then, the prisoner cried, and thanked Mrs Hannah for forgiving him.
The gospel passage reveals the dark side of our human nature. We are a people who have the tendency to make retaliation to every hurt or harm inflicted on us. We can trade insult for insult or injury for injury. As a result, we can nurse hatred and harbor grudges toward those who harm us or to people whom we consider as enemies. Jesus has corrected this attitude, and he perfected the Old Testament laws.
First, Jesus commented on and perfected the old law “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” In Latin, this is called “lex talionis” which is translated as the law of retaliation. This law does not say that we should seek vengeance; instead what it says is that punishments shouldn’t be disproportionate. We often hear cases of excessive or disproportionate punishments. A few years ago, a Filipina maid was alleged to have stolen money from her Singaporean employers. In punishing her, the employers beat her with an iron rod, poured hot wax poured onto her head and her private parts. Now, the “lex talionis” could have prevented the excesses of punishment. “An eye for an eye” rule could have been useful. If indeed she stole money, then she should pay the amount back. But for Jesus, there is another way to respond to this situation. The message of Jesus is “Don’t retaliate!” Instead, he taught his disciples to “turn the other cheek.” Jesus teaches us to take the insult gracefully, and forgive the offender.
Secondly, Jesus commented on the old law, “you shall love your neighbor; hate your enemy.” He perfected it by saying “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” This is called the Christian ethic of personal relationship. This is indeed difficult to do. We do love our friends, but we never love our enemies. Once I told a woman to pray for her enemy as a means to heal the broken friendship. But she told me, “Father, I can offer prayers for her. But my prayer would be different: that soon she will die in a vehicular accident.”
What Jesus is trying to tell us disciples is this: that our life should be governed by love, not hatred or grudge. He expects that Christians should make a difference in this world. In a culture of revenge or retaliation, our reaction is not to pay revenge with revenge. We should have the ability to accept pain. We should be more loving instead. If our life is governed by love, then indeed, we are and we become children of the Father.
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