TURNING 

THE OTHER CHEEK

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily  for this 11^th Monday in Ordinary Time is, “Turning The Other Cheek.”

We know this message from the Sermon on the Mount very well.

It  - along with many of the messages of Jesus from the Sermon the Mount - are part of our lives.

Evidently - even if people don’t accept Jesus as God - they accept his messages about how to do life.

ANGER - REVENGE - BEING HURT

Today’s short gospel - Matthew 5: 38-42 - deals with anger, wanting to strike back - revenge - retaliation - being hurt - and going in the opposite direction - the direction of peace and bridge building.

How many times have we wanted to get back at someone who has hurt us - someone whom we think has done us wrong?

How many times have we stood on a long line and someone sneaks in ahead of us and we want to scream - but we swallow our spit or venom?

How many times have we been on Route 50 and someone takes the exit ramp road and then at the last, last, last, second - shoots back into the right lane of Route 50 heading for the Bay Bridge. If we play by the rules we want to beep and yell “Hey. Not fair. I hope you get a ticket!”

How many times have we been talking to someone - maybe even listening to them - and they start looking elsewhere - even waving to someone else - totally ignoring us - and we feel “Anger! What am I chopped liver!”

How many times have we been trying to sleep and someone is cutting their grass at 6 AM on a Saturday morning - or playing loud rock music at midnight on a Tuesday evening?

I WONDER

I wonder what triggered Jesus to think about all this. I wonder what did Jesus see. Did he see someone who was slapped in the face? Did he then see escalation - and in the end someone has a broken nose or face or arm - a scene that started with a wrong word or slur - or comment about someone’s family.

I wonder if Jesus saw someone turn the other cheek - go the extra mile - give someone their overcoat - when the other was going to sue them over their suit.

PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH

Certainly Jesus practiced what he preached.

He was nitpicked to death - long before he was put to death on the cross.

Certainly he went the extra mile when someone interrupted him because they had a sick daughter, son or servant.

THE WAY OF NON-VIOLENCE

If you saw the movie, Gandhi, you saw how he a Hindu, practiced Jesus’ way of non-violence - how he was beaten, thrown off a train, but non-violence eventually turned the minds of those who wanted status quo apartheid - in both South Africa and India.

I didn’t protest the war in Vietnam, but I think the protesters, did at some point help to end that war - sooner than it would have ended.

Most of us hope the silent protest against abortion - will put an end to abortion.

Most of us also have opportunities every day - to go the extra mile - turn the other cheek - not try to get back when dissed, dismissed or denigrated by another.

CONCLUSION: TWO OBSERVATIONS

1) Sometimes we realize the genius of Jesus - the plan of Jesus  in all this. We stop screaming - and our temper tantrums - in the car when we are filled with road rage - and we realize our spouse and our kids in the car are more relaxed as well. We didn’t say the wrong thing back at someone who has wronged us - and that night we say to God. “Thanks for keeping me calm when I became furious when so and so did that and that this morning.”

2) Sometimes we realize we were wrong - after the fact - and it's a good thing we didn’t attack back - because it's only then we realize we were wrong. The example I use for myself happened New Jersey.  It was a Saturday afternoon. I was on my way to preach a parish mission in a small parish there. I couldn’t find the church. I pulled into a gas station - got out - and asked an attendant - if he know where St. Such and Such Church was.  He told me to go back the road I had just taken - 6 lights - make a left - then make the next left - and go 5 lights and you’ll find the church. I did it. There it was. But as I got out of the car I could see in the distance - to my left - over the trees - the gas station I was just at asking for directions. I got angry and wanted to get back in the car - drive to the gas station and say to the guy. “Why didn’t you send me to the next light, make a right, go to the next light and make another right? Good thing I didn’t because that evening I went out for a short walk and surprise - there was a canal at the end of the street - and one couldn’t have driven over that water - without a bridge.