Regarding
Matthew 5:38-48, the Gospel Reading for Mass on the Seventh Sunday of Ordinary
Time
The
Gospel of the Lord today dishes up things we might receive (or reject) with
sadness, anger and fear.
Christ
tells us to “offer no resistance to one who is evil.”
If
a man hits you, let him hit you again.
If
he wants to take away your shirt, hand him your coat also.
If
he uses you for one mile, go along for two.
By
taking today’s Gospel out of context, we could make a bad lesson from it:
“Even
if it kills you, be a doormat; let men use, rob, and hurt you; be a doormat,
even if it kills you.”
Christ
goes on, and ends by telling us to “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is
perfect.”
Today’s
Gospel is part of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, where he is mapping out the
blessed way of God’s children, the perfect children of the perfect Father, the
Father of heaven.
[Mt.
5:10-12] Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of justice, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you, persecute
you, and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
“So
be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Today’s
Gospel, in the context of the whole Sermon on the Mount, does not command us to
be mere victim doormats.
Rather,
it tells us to expect and welcome suffering if we are sincere in following,
imitating and serving Christ as sons and daughters of his heavenly Father who
is perfect.
In
the Body and Blood of Christ, God binds himself to us men and women and to our
salvation in an everlasting covenant.
God
is the one who offers us his left cheek after we have hit his right.
In
the Body and Blood of Christ, we sue God for his tunic, and he hands us his
cloak as well.
In
the Body and Blood of Christ, we expect God to serve our needs; we press him
into service for at least a mile, but he goes much more than twice that.
In
his Body and Blood, Christ suffered murder, so that we— for whose sins he died—
could eat and drink his resurrection.
His
all is for the glory of his Father and for the everlasting, joyous welfare of
humanity.
If
we are to be in “Holy Communion” with Christ, then we must risk our all and
offer our all to be available to serve the glory of the Father and the authentic
welfare of humanity.
Turn.
Love. Repeat.
