TURNING
THE OTHER CHEEK
The title of my homily for this 11th 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.