7th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Lv 19:1-2,17-18, PS 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13, 1 COR 1:3:16-23, Gospel: MT 5:38-48
Get some Ice Cream. Last Sunday of Ordinary Time
In my opinion everyone who loves Ice Cream here at the parish should have some after Mass today by way of celebrating this last Sunday of Ordinary Time. It is a way for us to begin to celebrate the coming of Lent - a time when the Church turns back towards Christ to renew our Faith / our understanding and acceptance of God’s love for us that is shown through the pouring out of his Love on the Cross.
Spoiler Alert
If you have been following along with the Sunday Gospels for the past couple of weeks, you will notice that last week’s Gospel flows directly into this week’s Gospel, and that this week’s Gospel flows directly into the Gospel we will hear on Ash Wednesday. Do not fear! I will not give away Wednesday’s Gospel (Spoiler Alert - It is the same each year), I mention it in the off chance that you might want to follow along as we go.
Align your Soul to the Will of God
This is providential as we can use the readings today to queue us up for Lent, to prepare us to enter into this time of prayer, fasting and alms giving with our eyes on the ultimate goal - emerging from Lent this year with our will, our soul more in aligned with the will of God.
The Gospel today begins with Christ comparing the old-law to the new-law..
Following the Old Law is rooted in fear,
To follow the New Law one must be rooted in love.
In the Old Law it was said - an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. This law was based on the fear of revenge. It is the primitive, or basic form of spirituality as it is rooted in justice plain and simple. You hurt me and I will hurt you. Therefore we should be respectful of one another.
The New Law it is said - offer no resistance to the one who is evil. If he strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other one instead.
A Practical Example of turning the other cheek
Have you ever noticed that often times when you speak to a person, and need to correct them that they respond with anger or denial or upsetness?
How often when we have a difficult time correcting another and their response is one of - “How messed up we are.” Our natural response to this type of confrontation is to get angry, and respond out of authority or power or righteousness or denial.
Turning the Other Cheek means not responding out of anger
I once had a situation with a co-worker where I needed to correct them about a work situation that had gotten pretty messy through their actions. When I placed the truth of the problem before them they responded with anger, avoiding the root problem that we faced. One response I could have had was to respond to them in kind - with anger and bitterness about the “truth” of their actions, but that would not be productive.
As I was reflecting on this Gospel I realized that this is what Jesus meant when he said that we are to turn the other cheek. When we choose to respond to the injury of another out of love then it is a witness to our faith and to our ability to imitate the love of Christ.
To be able to respond to the attack of another with love is a witness of courage and of a strong faith because it shows that we are truly trying to imitate the love of God.
It is tempting to kill relationships that are painful - Christ calls us to forgive...
In the Gospel Christ points out that more often than not these broken relationships exist in our families, where the bitterness of division is forced to endure for many years because we are related by blood or marriage. How often do we have those relationships where we can’t just leave them. With other relationships if we have a bitter disagreement, or some grave hurt we tend to close down those relationships and put an end to them. In family, that is much harder, because of the harm it does to all of the associated relationships that we have.
Fight Fire with Fire or with Water?
This then is the challenge for us when we find ourselves embroiled in these relationships where we have to face the fire of our brother (or sister’s) anger. How do we respond? If we follow the wisdom of the world then we “fight fire with fire” then we end up burning up and destroying the relationships that are there. In the Gospel today Christ offers us an alternate path - to fight fire with the water of Baptism!
How can we fight the fire of anger with the water of Baptism? We “Put on the love of Christ”.
When we are Baptized, Christ comes to dwell in our souls, and we are transformed because in that moment we “Put on Christ”. When we are Baptized we take on a new identity in which we are called to imitate the Love of God. It is interesting to examine the last part of the Gospel, where Christ points out that God pours out His love on both the faithful and sinners alike. If we reflect on the earlier part of the Gospel and the passion then we see that it was Christ, when he was persecuted actually lived out this teaching - he turned the other cheek, and he walked the entire way to Calvary. He demonstrated the degree to which His life was in conformity with the Love of God by the authenticity and consistency of His witness.
Do you not know that you are a temple of God?
One thing that you might not realize is that in Baptism we are transformed, and become a temple of the Holy Trinity. This means that our identity - that is who God created us to be is rooted in our ability to imitate the love of Christ in our actions. I think that it is often the case that as Christians we lose sight of this reality. For the World, identity is rooted in rebellion. For us Christians, our identity is rooted in who we are in the eyes of God. This identity is revealed to us through the love of God. Another way of saying this is that our vocation is to imitate the Love of Christ.
What does it mean to “Put on Christ?” It means to imitate His Love. If I look at the Cross as a person of the world - I say “What a foolish waste!” What a failure in potential, for a 33 year old man to give himself up over to death. Think of the career he could have had in carpentry…
I am judging Christ by selfish standards.
To Put on Christ is to imitate His love
If on the other hand I put on Christ then I desire to imitate this love. I desire to share this love. This is foolishness to the World - but the truth of Christ’s love. When I place the needs of the other before myself then I no longer need to defend my actions, I no longer need to get upset by injustice, I no longer fear blindness or toothlessness, because my desire is not for myself but for the other to encounter Christ in my actions.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians to call them out of their life
To fight the fire of anger with the water of our Baptism is to choose to discover our identity in Christ. If I respond to anger with anger I do not grow, mature or develop. If on the other hand I respond to fire with the Love I received in Baptism, then that light of the Holy Spirit illuminates within me the special, unique way that Christ calls me to follow Him. In that exchange I discover who God created me to be as a gift to the world so that the world can encounter Christ.
Christian vs Muslim view of Sin and Forgiveness.
Once I had the opportunity to discuss Sin and Forgiveness with a Muslim man. He pointed out to me the lack of security systems in Saudi Arabia. He boasted that Gold and Jewelry salesmen did not need to invest in security systems because the consequence of theft was too severe. If you are caught stealing - they cut off your hand. If you keep on stealing you end up dead.
While one might admire that fear of the consequence of sin that this viewpoint brings out, it is ultimately an impoverished view of God’s love. Yes, the Lord hates the things that we do that drive us away from Him. That is what sin does. As imitators of Christ, we too must hate our sin and we need to examine what is leading us into sin.
From a Christian perspective this is of limited utility in bringing about human conversion. You have a very finite limit to the degree to which you can convert. Conversion of the heart is hard because you need to reject the ideas that have been planted in your heart that lead you to sin. Think about any hard addiction that you are trying to change - it takes work and there are setbacks.
Listen to what the psalmist has to say about God’s approach to sinners.
- He pardons all of you inequities
- He heals all your ills
- He redeems your life from destruction
- He crowns you with kindness and compassion
God’s love starts with a pardon of us. In the sacrament of Confession we are healed from our ills. When we choose to unite ourselves with the love of Christ we are redeemed from destruction by His sacrifice on the Cross. Christ wants us to be crowned with kindness and compassion which is what happens at the end of this life as we are welcomed into eternal life.
Set your sites on selfless love this Lent
Ultimately, today’s reading focuses our hearts on learning how to imitate the Love of God. As we take these last few moments of Ordinary Time to ponder what Christ is calling us to this Lent, I want to invite you to consider dying to those actions that hinder our ability to imitate the love of Christ. The goal of this season of Lent is for our hearts to be converted, so that others will see the works of Christ present in our lives and give praise to God the Father.
For Lent this year let us strive to “Be Holy, as your Father in Heaven is Holy!”
