First Reading - Leviticus 19:1-2,17-18
Second Reading - 1 Corinthians 3:16-23
Gospel - Matthew 5:38-48
The first reading, taken from the book of Leviticus, gives the Holiness code: “Be holy, for I the Lord, your God, am Holy.” This passage explains that God of Israel is a transcendent God, beyond human knowledge, and at the same time a God Who wants to be with His people. Therefore, the people are expected not only adore, revere, and love Him, but also to share His Holiness by living holy lives in God’s presence. The Divine Nature is that God is Holy, and His Holiness consists of His unconditional and magnanimous love, care, concern, mercy, and forgiveness towards every human being. It follows, then, that in order to be holy, we have to be kind, loving, merciful, forgiving, and compassionate toward our neighbors – and this is what God wants us to be when He calls each one of us to be holy, to be spiritually perfect. Listening to the voice of the Lord, we thus realize what holiness entails: bearing no hatred in one’s heart, foregoing revenge, and holding no grudge, particularly towards a fellow citizen. All this is summed up in “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Indeed, the merciful God gently guides His chosen people on the path of holiness. The reading teaches us that we share God’s holiness when we obey the two great commandments: 1) “Love your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. 2) “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
In the second reading, St. Paul gives us an additional reason to be holy. We are to keep our bodies holy because we are the temples of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit lives in us. The word naos, which Paul uses for temple, refers to the sanctuary, corresponding to the Holy of Holies in the Temple at Jerusalem where the Lord God chose to dwell. Paul teaches us all that the presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us makes our community and each of its members a holy temple, the naos of God. For the Holy Spirit continually gives us His gifts, fruits, and charisms so that we can better live the very life of Christ.
The gospel passage explains demands of true christian life through the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, rejects even the concession of milder retaliation allowed by Moses. For Jesus, retaliation, or even limited vengeance, has no place in the Christian life, even though graceful acceptance of an offense requires great strength and discipline of character, as well as strengthening by God’s grace. Jesus wants his disciples to repay evil with kindness. Instead of retaliation, Jesus gives his new law of love, grace, forgiveness, reconciliation, and no retaliation. Jesus illustrates the Christian approach by giving three examples. 1) Turn to him the other cheek: Striking someone on the right cheek requires striking with the back of one’s hand, and according to the Jewish concept it inflicts more insult than pain. Jesus instructs his followers to forgive the insult gracefully and convert the offender. It is interesting that Gandhi said, “Everyone in the world knows that Jesus and His teaching are non-violent, except Christians.” 2) “If anyone sues you to take away your coat (chitona), let him have your cloak (himation) also“: (v. 40). A chitona is a lightweight garment like a shirt (but long like a robe), worn close to the skin. A himation is an outer garment like a coat and is also long. To surrender both chitona and himation would render a man essentially naked, which suggests that Jesus is using exaggerated language to make the point that we are to defuse conflict by yielding more than is required. Jesus teaches that his followers should show more responsibility and a greater sense of duty in refusing to fight for privileges. 3) Go with him two miles. Roman law permitted its soldiers and other officials to require people to carry a burden for a mile. Service of this sort could be quite oppressive. Here, Jesus tells us that a Christian has the duty of responding, even to seemingly unjust demands by helping or serving gracefully, not grudgingly. The principle is this: When we respond to an onerous duty with cheerfulness rather than resentment, we may win over the one who gave us the duty.
The second part of today’s Gospel passage is perhaps the central and the most famous section of the Sermon on the Mount. It gives us the Christian ethic of personal relationships: love one’s neighbors and forgive one’s enemies. Above all, it tells us that what makes Christians different is the grace with which they treat others with loving kindness and mercy, even if they don’t deserve it. The Old Law never said to hate enemies, but that was the way some Jews understood it. Jesus commands that we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us to demonstrate that we are children of a merciful Heavenly Father. A Christian has no personal enemies. If we only love our family and friends, we are no different from pagans or atheists.
Dear friends, we need to have a forgiving heart. Jesus demands that we should forgive, pardon, and be generous whether or not our offenders deserve it, and even if we are not loved in return. He also tells us to pray for those who, it may seem willfully, cause us suffering, hardship and unhappiness.
We are to try to be perfect, to be like God: We become perfect when we know God’s will and act accordingly. We can do so because the Holy Spirit has been given to us, and He dwells within us, empowering us to do God’s will. We become perfect when we try to love as God loves, to forgive as God forgives, and to show unconditional good will and universal benevolence as God does. All this we can do only with His ongoing Grace for which we need to ask, and then to receive and use.
.jpeg)
0 Comments