Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
June 19, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061923.cfm

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Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, Matthew hits us right between the eyes with one of the most difficult Gospel passages to defend, to explain, and – most certainly – to practice.

Jesus said to his disciples:
“You have heard that it was said,
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.

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“Oh, wow’, we might think. “Did Jesus have any idea what kind of a world I’d be living in someday?!”

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Violence is so rampant in our society that some of us have stopped looking at the news because we can’t stand it! Here in the U.S., we are traumatized by statistics around the number and kind of artillery in our neighborhoods and who dies as a result – children, worshippers, movie-goers, picnickers. Are these the “enemy” for whom we have designed our lethal weapons?

We see gunpoint carjackings, drive-by shootings, and unlicensed militia defending their political prejudices. We see children afraid to go to school. Mothers afraid to go shopping. Believers afraid to go to their place of worship. We have even seen an assault on the American government stoked by a nationalistic rhetoric of hostility, hatred, and aberrant machismo.

There are so many guns now on American streets that we may think the best response is to carry our own. The “law” allows that. We may consider ourselves valiant if we “stand our ground”, legally shooting some innocent bystander who happened to wander onto our property or drive into our traffic lane!

So what, in God’s Name, does this Gospel have to say to us who have descended almost beyond recue into the chasm of violence?

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Remember, Jesus has just finished talking about the Law. He has assured his followers that he has come to fulfill the Law rather than to abolish it. Jesus honors and recognizes the Law as the framework that has held in place Israel’s centuries-long relationship with God.

But Jesus indicates that following the letter of the Law while not fulfilling its spirit is contradictory to the Reign of God. We can use the “law” as an excuse for our complacency – keeping in place those unexamined tenets that make us comfortable, rich, and more powerful to the detriment of others. This is what the Pharisees and Saducees had done.

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In each of the five situations listed in today’s Gospel, Jesus isn’t telling us to lie down like a doormat and let ourselves be walked on. What he’s saying is that with God’s help, there is a better way, a deeper response that we can give to the conflicts in our lives.

Jesus encourages his followers not to meet the other with resistance. So often, resistance is our first defense rather than patience, negotiation, honesty, listening, or forgiveness. Jesus is asking us to stand still for a moment before lashing back – and in that moment move toward a more graced and courageous resolution. He is counseling us to listen, to imagine mutuality, and to work together for an equilibium of justice with mercy.

It must be admitted that sometimes this just doesn’t seem to work. Those with the power to make positive change can block the way, just as they did for Jesus. We can end up looking like “losers” – or even die – like Jesus did. But even though he had the power – the Omnipotence to do so – Jesus did not resist. If we really understand the Paschal Mystery and believe in the Resurrection, we will know why, and we will try to imitate him.

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So where do we start? I think it starts with:

• the level of reverence in our everyday interactions,
• our attitudes toward “the other” – someone different from me in race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, nationality, economic status, or opinion.
• with our efforts toward reasonable gun legislation, educational equity for all children, universally available mental health services, and the eradication of abysmal poverty in our cities.

Can I do something to advance these changes? Not all by myself. But as a community of faith, Christians can bring amazing influence to these issues. Today’s Gospel is telling me to act on that belief.

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Poem: Some – Daniel Berrigan, SJ

Some stood up once and sat down.
Some walked a mile and walked away.
Some stood up twice and sat down
I’ve had it, they said.

Some walked two miles and walked away
It’s too much, they cried.

Some stood and stood and stood.
They were taken for dummies
They were taken for fools
They were taken for being taken in.

Some walked and walked and walked.
They walked the earth
They walked the waters
They walked the air.

Why do you stand?
they were asked, and
Why do you walk?

Because of the children, they said, and
Because of the heart, and
Because of the bread.

Because
the cause
is the heart’s beat
and the children born
and the risen bread.

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Music: Where Have All the Flowers Gone – written by Pete Seeger, sung by Joan Baez