February 23, 2017
Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily for the 7th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year A) on February 18 and 19, 2017 at St. Austin Parish in Austin, Texas. The homily is based on the day’s readings: Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18; Psalm 103; 1 Corinthians 3:16-23; and Matthew 5:38-48.
Our psalm today tells us that the LORD is kind and merciful, slow to anger, rich in kindness. Our other readings are about conflict, and how God calls us to love everyone, not to lower ourselves to the basic human instinct of retaliation and getting even if someone has offended us.
Probably most remarkable is the last line of our gospel passage, where Jesus calls us, in the Sermon on the Mount, to “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” What a challenging statement! We’re human; we’re not perfect. As we often tell couples preparing for marriage in the Catholic Church, “Life is far from perfect.” We’ll explore the idea of Christian perfection in our homily.
For the times we’ve failed to love others, we ask for God’s mercy.
There’s a danger in hearing Jesus’ words as simple folk wisdom, instead of as the very Word of God. For example, Jesus didn’t say, “Blessed are the nice.” He said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Anyone can be nice. It is radical, life-altering, and life-giving to be a peacemaker.
The section of the Sermon on the Mount that we just heard is every bit as challenging. We humans have an instinct to want to retaliate when they are hurt. Or to take from others, when we feel that we have not been treated fairly. In fact, our civil law system is based on such a concept. When we have been wronged, we may ask the court to impose damages on the other party. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
But civil law is not a very good standard for basing our morality. Civil law sets the bare minimum for interpersonal interactions. Jesus challenges us to a much higher standard. Jesus challenges us to build a world that strives for peace and reconciliation, rather than to construct a world based on absolute fairness.
But wait! Don’t we speak of God’s justice? Yes, God is just, but it’s a justice that we humans can’t comprehend. God’s ways are high above our ways. Jesus tells numerous parables in which God’s justice is carried out, but it doesn’t sound very “fair” to us. For example, the vineyard owner pays all his laborers a full day’s pay, even those whom he hired late in the afternoon.
One of the most important things we can learn to do as adults is learn how to handle difficult conflicts in constructive ways. For example, psychologists tell us that roughly 80% of divorces could be avoided if couples learned to communicate effectively, to try to work through their conflicts. On Friday, I was discussing this passage with the residents of Heritage Park Nursing Home. We talked about how easy it is to get overly angry about the common occurrences in their days – misplaced items, relatives and caregivers who make minor errors, etc.
Let’s explore the specific analogies that Jesus uses. By law, Roman soldiers could press Israelites into service for a mile, asking them carry their military equipment. In the Holy Land, these soldiers were often mercenaries – fellow Israelites. So, Jesus encourages those who are helping a soldier carry a load to do more than the bare minimum, to see the soldier as a fellow human being worth companionship. Who knows? Perhaps your effort to go the extra mile will spare another Israelite from being pressed into service.
And what about turning the other cheek? Let’s be clear: Jesus is not calling us to tolerate being abused or disrespected. In fact, the Church encourages those people who are caught in abusive marriages to separate. If one spouse does not have the capacity to love and cherish the other, we want the other spouse to get to safety!
But let’s talk through the logistics of turning the other cheek. If we strike someone – whether it’s intentional or accidental – what happens? After striking them, they are turned away from us. To turn the other cheek is not necessarily inviting the person to strike us again, but to engage, to look the person in the eye, to give them the benefit of the doubt, to dialogue, to figure out if the relationship can be saved, to reconcile.
Jesus calls us to love our enemies. The reign of God will never break upon the earth if we are only are nice to the people who are nice to us. If we want to build the kingdom of God on earth, we must spread God’s love far and wide. If we ever want to find a reason to dislike our spouse, our relatives, our co-workers, or our neighbors, we don’t have to work too hard. No one is perfect. Life is far from perfect.
So what in the world does Jesus mean when he commands us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect? Is this an impossible ideal? No! Look at the context: Jesus is talking about loving other people. We are flawed, but Jesus invites to be perfect in love.
How do we become perfect in love? By nurturing the love in our marriages. By giving those who annoy us the benefit of the doubt, to trust they didn’t intend to annoy us. If we make the decision to love people who annoy us, that love will overflow and bless the whole world!
In biology, the word perfect means “complete.” Humans are incomplete by our very nature. We can only be perfect by uniting ourselves with others – to see one another as members of the one body of Christ.
Come, let us love one another, for love… is from God.