First Reading - 1 Kings 21:1-16
Gospel - Matthew 5:38-42
In the gospel passage, Jesus teaches us about non-retaliation. He highlights that the law of retaliation was designed to dole out justice to the person harmed. The example of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" meant to provide equal justice to the underprivileged. However, Jesus' teaching goes beyond the idea of retaliation to affirm non-retaliation against the wicked. It may sound as though Jesus advocates acceptance of violence. In fact, within the theme of the Beatitudes, the teaching of non-retaliation evokes the attitudes expected from us towards those who harm or exploit us: we should be forgiving and patient. Jesus demolishes the attitude of revenge or 'evil for evil' mentality, promoting instead the attitude of 'good for evil'.
The first reading demonstrates the wicked actions of Ahab and Jezebel against Naboth. Naboth objected to Ahab's proposal, for which he had to pay with his life. One thing we can observe is that evil abounds in wickedness if not addressed.
Dear friends, we certainly find it difficult to act patiently with those who harm us. Our usual reaction against any harm done to us is to make that person pay double. This is exactly what we call retaliation. Jesus teaches us today against this attitude of ours; instead, he promotes love, forgiveness, and patience in place of retaliation. Why? Because evil begets more evil, but love transforms evil into love. We also see that one evil desire results in another evil act, as seen in the killing of Naboth. It's truly a challenge for us to repay love for evil to those who displease, harm, hurt, or exploit us. We need grace to do so.
Let's pray that with the grace of God we may be able to exhibit love, forgiveness, and patience with those who do us any wrong.
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