When I was around 5 years old, my sister and I were racing up our basement steps on our hands and knees towards the first floor. On the way up, I slid off the side, and fell, around 8 feet, head first, onto our concrete floor (I’m sure some of you are thinking: that explains a lot about Fr. Anthony!). I suffered a concussion, and was in the hospital for some time. While I have no evidence to support this, I jokingly say, to my sister’s chagrin, that she pushed me off so she could beat me to the top.
I don’t really believe that my sister pushed me, but I do know human nature, and I know that, often, when we feel slighted in some way, we not only give back what we got, but go a little further to make sure that the other person understands that they shouldn’t mess with us again. This is the tricky thing with justice: we’re good at demanding it, but quite awful at exacting it. We always give a little bit more than we got. We see this with kids all the time: one sibling touches another, which leads to a slap, which leads to a punch, with leads to an all-out fight. But adults aren’t much different, except that as adults were a little bit better at hiding our retribution.
As Jesus teaches us in the Gospel today, the idea of exacting justice for ourselves does not always lead to justice. When we keep returning offense for offense (“an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”), we continue a cycle of violence that will never stop. Even if we could exact perfect justice, the cycle would still continue: you offend me, so I offend you back, but then you are offended so you offend me, and then I offend you back, etc., etc.
Instead, Jesus invites us to end the cycle, and turn the other cheek. Jesus is not teaching us here to be punching bags or victims of others’ aggression, but to remove ourselves from this cycle where we think we need to get revenge any time someone does something wrong to us. Jesus invites us to forgive the other and will the good of the other, or said more simply, to love the other.
Now, we can all think of times when this would be unreasonable. For a cop, he or she may have to use force to subdue an attacker or arrest someone who is not following lawful commands; for our justice system to work we have to punish those who do wrong to the city and help them to understand that breaking legitimate laws is not something that promotes the common good; for our men and women in the armed forces, they are called on to fight enemies of the USA in defense of our country; and even for individuals, one has a right and often an obligation to defend oneself or one’s family against violence.
But at the same time, in our day-to-day lives, we have many opportunities to end the cycle of vengeance at home, at work, on the road, and elsewhere. And when we do, we imitate our heavenly Father who offers even those who offend Him time to repent and to turn away from their evil and live a life of holiness. Nowhere is this more evident than with St. Paul. The Acts of the Apostles documents, and St. Paul himself writes in some of his epistles, that he persecuted the Church that Jesus founded. He even consented to the stoning of St. Stephen. But God didn’t stop loving Paul, or only give him bad things. By God’s grace, which was showered upon Paul, he became the greatest missionary in the history of Christianity and gave his life in witness to the faith.
So today, let us recommit ourselves to doing as we heard in the first reading, to loving our neighbor as ourselves. As disciples of Jesus, may we follow the example of our Master, and not respond in vengeance, but end the cycle of giving back at least as good as we were given when someone offends us. As we have received mercy from our heavenly Father, when strict justice demanded punishment, so may we also be merciful, as our heavenly Father is merciful.