7th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Yr C
Today we continue with Jesus’ ‘Sermon on the Plain’ teachings, which can be divided up into three parts. The beatitudes and woes, commands on love and mercy, and the teaching on the two ways. Last week if you can remember, was the beatitudes and woes, and now we are covering part two, the commands on love and mercy.
Many Jewish people, expected that the coming of the ‘Messiah’ would lead to a revolt against the Roman authorities, in order to win back their freedom. However, as we can see, Jesus’ teachings, (who is the ‘Messiah’) are completely the opposite to what the Jewish people expected.
Jesus asks his disciples to pray for those who persecute you. What a challenge this is for most people. Normally, our enemies are the last people we would want to pray for. For the Jewish people, ‘those who persecute you’ were foremost the Romans. The very people who occupy their land, tax them heavily, and treat them with violence and injustice. However, it is this radical way of love and mercy, Jesus expects of us, in order for us, to be called ‘Children of God’.
We need to be perfect just as our heavenly Father is perfect. I know what you are all thinking, being perfect is impossible, we are only human after all, and we get tempted to sin all the time. Is Jesus setting the bar far too high, beyond our reach? I bet these were also the same thoughts of the Jewish people, as they listened to Jesus’ teachings. However, Jesus is challenging us to a deeper understanding of the commandments and to go beyond them.
Jesus tells his disciples to offer no resistance to the person who is doing evil against them. ‘To the one strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also.’ A slap on the right cheek would have involved a back-handed slap from your enemy. In the Mishnah documents which contains a list of Jewish oral laws, such a slap was regarded far more insulting than just a normal one, it involved a double penalty of insult. Yet Jesus challenges his disciples to endure this double insult for a second time, by offering the other cheek as well.
‘If one of you takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either.’ Jewish men typically wore two garments: an inner tunic, and an outer heavier cloak. In the O.T one could be sued for his outer cloak, but never for his inner tunic, which was used to keep him warm and to keep his dignity. But Jesus is saying if someone takes your cloak, then offer them your tunic as well.
Such radical love for your oppressors is what will make us God’s children, as we take on the characteristics of our Heavenly Father. Jesus now calls his disciples to be perfect and Holy, showing love and mercy towards others, before His Heavenly Father.
The love to which Jesus calls us, is beyond the capacity of our fallen human nature, but by the free gift of the Holy Spirit received through faith and the Sacraments of the Church, this makes it possible.
Let God’s Divine Wisdom be with us today, giving us the courage to turn the other cheek, and the ability to go beyond the Ten Commandments with Faith, Love and Charity.
May we imitate the Saints, asking for their intercession as we seek out to lead good and holy lives, because we are members of God’s Holy family here on earth.
Let us remind ourselves what the Gospel is asking us to do:
“Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be judged. Condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.”
Rev. Fr Philip Wrigley's Blog 