SEVENTH SUNDAY OF
ORDINARY TIME

 

First Reading (Is 26:2,7-9,12-13,22-23)

 

David was not a man to show mercy to his enemies or to forget a wrong (1 K 2:1-9); he committed many crimes and shed much blood (1 Chr 22:8), but the episode we read today reveals that he harbored also noble and generous feelings.

This is what happened: Saul was pursuing him and had encamped for the night in the desert of Zif. David saw him coming and had decided to go and meet him. The feat was risky, but Abishai, a nephew of his and a brave warrior, offered to go with him. The two came near Saul and found him asleep surrounded by his soldiers. Abishai proposed immediately his solution, just more than sacrosanct, according to the mind of man: "Let me pin him to the ground with his own spear. Just one stroke! I shall not need to strike him twice" (8).

David had good reasons to punish Saul, but he chose the way of forgiveness: "Do not kill him", he told his nephew, "because he is the anointed of the Lord."

We have here two ways of thinking: Abishai’s, supported by human logic, that proposed attacking and destroying the man who had done them evil, and David's who chooses to forgive.

Jesus, as we shall see in today’s gospel, will go well beyond forgiveness. He will demand much more: his disciples not only must refrain from causing harm to their enemies, but must take the initiative of going to them and helping them out of their evil condition. David’s option for pardon is already an important step towards that love of enemy that the Master will preach and demand.

But why was Saul spared? Because though guilty he was the anointed of the Lord.

Aren't there Christians even now in our times who rejoice as they hear that a village thief has been caught and badly beaten up? And what about those members of our communities who hold that those who are guilty of serious crimes must be mistreated, tortured and hanged? Can one be a Christian if one harbors this kind of thoughts and wishes? No. He doesn't even reach the level of the just of the Old Testament. He forgets that even if guilty, man is still an "anointed of the Lord”, a Son of God and is to be loved and wooed back into the right course.

 

Second Reading (1 Cor 15:45-49)

 

What will be left of us after our death: just the spiritual part (and thus we shall be only fading ghosts), or will we have also a body? And if we are going to have a body, will it be like the one we have now? This was a much-discussed problem at the time of Jesus. Paul initially is of the same opinion of the masters of his time and holds that at the end of times we shall repossess the body we had in this world (cf. 1 Thes 4:14-17).

This Jewish idea of the resurrection has however quite a few shortcomings: why should God let people die and then raise them again; wouldn't this be playing with human being? How can one recover a body turned into dust since long? And what body of ours shall we repossess: the young, the old, the ugly, the sick, without teeth or the one we had at the moment of death?

Paul gains a better understanding of eternal life, considering it in the light of the resurrection of Jesus. Writing to the Corinthians he says that it is not this material body we have now that will rise, but each person will be given by God a "spiritual body". Resurrection will not involve only a part of us, the whole person will enter into the heavenly glory, but with completely different body from the one we have in this world.

To explain his point better, Paul uses a simile: the seed, he says, is laid into the ground and disappears; we have the impression that it dies, but after some time it reappears in a different form (1 Cor 15:35-44). What happens to the mango stone buried in the ground? It appears to dry out and die, but when the first rains arrive, it reappears but now it is no longer a stone, it is a tree that keeps growing, putting out leaves and producing delicious fruits. Looking at the mango tree who could see in it the ‘stone’ from which it came? This is what happens to the person: his material body (at times dried out and in bad shape like the mango stone) is given back to earth and when he rises up, he is reborn in the world of God to a new life, with an incorruptible body, that is, a body that does not need to eat or rest; a body free of all suffering and disease, a body that cannot die.

In the reading of today the apostle is saying that this transformation is not the result of the natural human force, similar to the force present in the mango stone. It is the work of the Spirit granted to the human in baptism, the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead and that will also raise us. Thus, as we have borne in us the image of Adam, the earthly and mortal man, we shall be receiving the likeness of Christ, the firstborn of the new humanity.

The reading is inviting us to reflect. If death is the moment when a person passes from this world into the world of God, if it is the wonderful moment of the birth of a new life, are we justified in fearing the dead? If they are with God and have been purified of their sins, how can we hold that they can do us evil, causing illness and accidents? Won’t this be a pagan conception of death? Will then certain rites we hold, like the purification of the persons and of the house objects, be still admissible? Can one be considered impure the very moment he meets God and enters into his house to be happy forever?

 

Gospel (Lk 6:27-38)

 

            Ernest says to his schoolmates: "I respect all, but if I were to find my girl-friend with another boy I would kill both of them.” Joseph returned home one day in a rage and revealed to his wife: “I will make Aloysius pay for this! Next time he asks me a favor he will have to kneel down in front of me and he will have to wait as long as I wish.” George has been robbed already three times by criminals who even threatened to kill him; he then went to town and bought a pistol to defend himself.

These three facts are real. Let us try to assess them. We certainly all agree that Ernest, Joseph and George are honest people: they are not attacking people doing good, they just react against those doing evil. We could say that they are people with the sense of justice: they respond to the good with goodness, and to evil with evil. But is it enough to be “just" in order to be Christians? The gospel of today will be giving us the answer.

After proclaiming his disciples blessed because they are poor, hungry, weeping and persecuted, Jesus addresses himself to the crowds and proclaims a principle that is really upsetting and revolutionary: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who treat you badly" (27-28). We have here four imperatives (love, do good, bless, pray!) that leave no doubt on how a Christian is to behave when confronted by evil. They are the disputable proof that Jesus rejects totally and unconditionally any recourse to violence.

We react instinctively and forcefully against the guilty ones. We are convinced that by "having them pay for it" we somehow restore justice and all are taught a fitting lesson on what should not be done. Good: but Jesus does not agree with such quick and hurried solutions. He rejects the use of violence because it does not improve things at all, it only complicates them more. It does not help the wicked to turn good, it oppresses them, it unleashes hatred, passions, and revenge. It may even eliminate them, but it does not save them. The only creative attitude is love. Let us see if we can explain better.

There are some Christians who honestly admit that they, though trying, will never succeed to love those who hurt them, ruined their family or even perhaps killed a child of theirs. Mind you, Jesus is not saying that one has to become the friend of the guilty one. This feeling of sympathy does not depend on us, cannot be imposed, it rises spontaneously among people respecting and esteeming each other; The Master is asking to love, that is, not to look at one's own rights, but to the needs of the other. He does not stop at asking to restrain from responding to evil with evil, to wrong with wrong; he demands from us an attitude of acceptance of the other, he wants us to take the first step towards the wrong-doer, so as to help him out of his sad state. This is certainly not easily achieved. This is why he says that we must pray. Only prayer can dissolve aggressiveness, disarm hearts, communicate the sentiments of our Father who is in heaven, give the force that stem from the love of God.

Jesus explains his demand with three concrete examples: "To anyone who slaps you on the cheek, present the other cheek as well; to anyone who takes your cloak from you, do not refuse your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and do not ask for your property back from someone who takes it" (29-30). What does he mean? That the Christians cannot claim justice? Won't they have the right to defend their rights, to protect their goods, their honor and life? Will they have to behave like cowards who tolerate oppression of the poor and the weak?

It would be naive to think that the words of Jesus are to be taken to the letter. They show how the disciple is to confront evil. To love does not mean to bear in silence, without reacting. The Christian must take on a very active role to eliminate injustice, stop corruption and thefts but he rejects the use of means condemned by the gospel in order to achieve it. He does not have recourse to arms, violence, deceit, hatred, vengeance. "Never pay back evil with evil…If your enemy is hungry give him something to eat, if thirsty something to drink… Do not be mastered by evil, but master evil with good" (Rom 12:17-21).

The passage then teaches us "the golden rule": "Treat others as you would like others to treat you" (31). What does this really mean? Should we take our selfishness as the measuring stick of the good we must do? Not at all. Jesus is just giving us a wise counsel on what to do to help those in difficulty. He suggests that we should question ourselves thus: if I were in that same condition, what would I like others to do for me? How would I like to be helped? Would we like to be attacked, humiliated and beaten up? Let us be honest with ourselves: when we demand justice for a wrong done to us, we are often not at all seeking the good of the other, all we want is revenge.

Let us compare now the behavior of a mother and of a judge in front of the same guilty person. The judge passes sentence according to the law and tries to be impartial; the mother instead is above every code of law, she is led by her love and she wants to rescue her son.

In the following verses (32-34) Jesus examines three specific cases of "just" people: people who love those who love them, people who do good to those that do them good, people who give out loans to get something in exchange. All these people are undoubtedly doing good deeds, but if people want to become "children of the Most High” they must rise a step higher: they must have the force courage to love their enemies, to renounce their rights, to do good and give loans without expecting anything in exchange for themselves, they must act only the welfare of the other (35).

And what will be the reward for those who are led by this kind of disinterested love? "It will be great!" says Jesus. Will they have the best place in paradise? No, much more: “They will be children the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and wicked” (35). So this will be the reward: the resemblance with the Father, his own happiness, the experience of his ineffable joy of being able to love gratuitously even on this earth.

The text concludes with the exhortation to the members of the Christian communities to make visible to all people the countenance of their Heavenly Father who is compassionate, does not judge, does not condemn anybody and always forgives (36-38).

We could summarize the message of the gospel we have just read by saying that the people can be divided into three categories: on the lowest step we have the wicked and evil ones (those who do evil, even though they receive good); higher up we have the just (people who do good to those doing them good, and responding with evil to those who do them wrong); and finally we have those who respond to evil with goodness, and these are the children of God.

Let us go back to the three examples with which we began the reflection of today. In what category would you put Ernest, Joseph and George? Try to reflect on certain talk going on often among the Christians of our communities: aren't they saying that thieves should have their hands cut off, adulterers should be brutally beaten up, criminals hanged, aggressors killed…? On what step should we place people who think so? At most on the second step: they may be just men, but certainly not "children of the Most High".

 

Theme of the Sunday

LOVE YOUR ENEMIES!

 

Love of the enemies is the theme linking together the first reading and the gospel. In the first reading we have the example of David who forgives Saul. In the gospel we are told that Jesus demands unselfish, disinterested and unconditional love for the enemies from his disciples.

The second reading completes the catechesis of this Sunday by telling us about the new body that we shall be receiving after death. How could we hate or do wrong to our brothers and sisters in this world if we believe that one day we shall all together be feasting in the house of the Father, all sitting at the same table?