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Turn the Other Cheek Readings for February 23, 2020 – Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Turn the Other Cheek We are to live differently - beginning right now- because we live our lives now in Jesus Christ. We are to love differently, because we are empowered by grace to love in Jesus Christ, and with His Love. And all of this is made possible, as we cooperate with grace. The character of Christ is being formed in us as we cooperate with grace. __________________________________________________________________________________ Opening Prayer Lord Jesus, we want to be holy and to live our lives the way you intended. We can’t do it by ourselves, so we thank you for the grace and the desire to deepen our faith, and to learn and grow more and more like you. Reading 1 LV 19:1-2, 17-18 The LORD said to Moses,“Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them: Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy. You shall not bear hatred for your brother or sister in your heart. Though you may have to reprove your fellow citizen, do not incur sin because of him. Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against any of your people. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” Responsorial PsalmPS 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13 R. (8a) The Lord is kind and merciful. Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all my being, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. R. The Lord is kind and merciful. He pardons all your iniquities, heals all your ills. He redeems your life from destruction, crowns you with kindness and compassion. R. The Lord is kind and merciful. Merciful and gracious is the LORD, slow to anger and abounding in kindness. Not according to our sins does he deal with us, nor does he requite us according to our crimes. R. The Lord is kind and merciful. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he put our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him. R. The Lord is kind and merciful. Reading 2 1 COR 3:16-23 Brothers and sisters: Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy. Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you considers himself wise in this age, let him become a fool, so as to become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God, for it is written: God catches the wise in their own ruses, and again: The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. So let no one boast about human beings, for everything belongs to you, Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or the present or the future: all belong to you, and you to Christ, and Christ to God. Gospel MT 5:38-48 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. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand over your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow. “You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Related Reflections From Pope Francis: ‘Catholics must think like Christ’: A Christian isn’t a person who simply follows some commandments, but is a person who tries to act, think and love like Christ, Pope Francis said at his weekly general audience. Being a Christian, he said, means allowing Jesus “to take possession of our lives and change them, transform them, free us from the darkness of evil and sin.” Jesus’ death and resurrection has a practical impact on believers, “just like a house built on a foundation; if this gives out, then the whole house falls,” he added. Through the resurrection, “we are freed from slavery to sin and become children of God.” Being a child of God, a believer, isn’t something Christians can set in a corner of the room and ignore most of the time. It implies a relationship with God that is deepened daily through prayer, reading the Bible, receiving the sacraments “especially penance and the Eucharist” and through acts of charity, he said. “And God treats us like sons and daughters. He understands us, forgives us, embraces us and loves us even when we make mistakes.” The Pope told those at the audience not to listen to voices that try to tell them that God doesn’t matter or give in to the temptation of “putting God aside and ourselves at the center.” Peace and joy come from knowing one is loved by God, he added. “God is our strength. God is our hope.” Pope Francis said sadness and the temptation of despair is strong in today’s world, so Christians have an obligation to be “visible, clear, brilliant signs of hope.” Catholic Herald, April 2013 – www.catholicherald.co.uk We are Called for Holy Living: The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us "All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity. All are called to holiness: "Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (CCC #2013) Christians are saved from sin, death and separation from God, through Jesus Christ. We are to live differently - beginning right now- because we live our lives now in Jesus Christ. We are to love differently, because we are capacitated by grace to love in Jesus Christ, and with His Love. And all of this is made possible, as we cooperate with grace. The character of Christ is being formed in us as we cooperate with grace. How can we be perfect? This admonition from Jesus is repeated in other Gospel accounts and developed in the New Testament Epistles. Our question should not be "is it possible?" Rather, it should be "HOW is it possible?" How do we respond? Perhaps our problem with both understanding and responding is that we confuse the meaning of the word, "perfect". Filtering this word through our linguistic limitations, we may come up with a false translation. However, Jesus has saved us from sin and death - and saved us for a new way of living. We can tend to focus on what we are saved from and forget what we are saved for. We do not yet comprehend who we are to become in Him. In Greek, the word often translated perfect is telios. It refers to something being completed, brought to its full purpose, potential and intended end and vocation. For example, in the world of objects, a hammer is telios or perfect when it is hammering a nail. In the world of subjects, things are telios or perfect when they are fulfilling their nature. In our Western minds, we can limit this word "perfect" and thereby fail to grasp its promise and potential. We think of it mathematically rather than relationally. We fail to understand it is a work in process. The God who is Love fashioned us in His Image. We are made to love as He loves. In Jesus Christ, we are now also being capacitated - to use a term frequently used by the early father and Bishop Ireneaus of Lyons - made capable - by the grace of His Redemption - of actually loving with God's love. "God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him" (1 Jn 4:16). Notice that the concept of being "perfected' is also applied to Jesus by the author of the New Testament Letter to the Hebrews in chapter 5 verses 8-9: "Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him." Jesus was made perfect through what He suffered? Yet, Jesus was without sin. How then was He perfected? He came into the world to redeem, to transform us by a life, and a death, and a Resurrection of perfect love. He fulfilled His purpose when He presided over the new creation from the Altar of that Cross and robbed death of its victory by bursting forth from a tomb which could not contain Love. Deacon Keith Fournier, Catholic Online (March 2015) – www.catholic.org Caring Without Calculation The Christian ideal is for spirituality and ethics to form a unified whole.
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