The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today resonate with motives based in greed, retribution, and injustice that stand in complete opposition to Jesus' exhortation to “turn the other cheek.”
The reading from the First Book of Kings, relates injustice around Naboth’s Vineyard.
* [21:1–16] The story tells how Jezebel manipulates important structures of Israelite social order, law, and religious observance to eliminate a faithful Israelite landowner who frustrates Ahab’s will.
* [21:3] Heritage: Hebrew naḥalah. Naboth is unwilling to sell or exchange his vineyard. According to the Israelite system of land tenure and distribution, land was held in common within a social unit. The ancestral naḥalah was not private property, to be alienated at will. (1 Kings, CHAPTER 21 | USCCB, n.d.)
Psalm 5 urges Trust in God for Deliverance from Enemies.
* [Psalm 5] A lament contrasting the security of the house of God (Ps 5:8–9, 12–13) with the danger of the company of evildoers (Ps 5:5–7, 10–11). The psalmist therefore prays that God will hear (Ps 5:2–4) and grant the protection and joy of the Temple. (Psalms, PSALM 5 | USCCB, n.d.)
The Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew teaches Concerning Retaliation.
* [5:38–42] See Lv 24:20. The Old Testament commandment was meant to moderate vengeance; the punishment should not exceed the injury done. Jesus forbids even this proportionate retaliation. Of the five examples that follow, only the first deals directly with retaliation for evil; the others speak of liberality.
* [5:41] Roman garrisons in Palestine had the right to requisition the property and services of the native population. (Matthew, CHAPTER 5 | USCCB, n.d.)
Julie Kalkowski asks how do we develop the internal strength to take the high road?... to not cooperate with evil?
Pope Francis writes: “The power of Jesus is love.” To overcome evil with good , we have to make time each day to connect with God’s grace and love so that we too can stand up to evil…to ‘turn our other cheek’.
Let us close by praying: “Jesus, you who love me, teach me to love like you. Jesus, you who forgive me, teach me to forgive like you. Send your spirit, the spirit of Love, upon me.” Pope Francis (Kalkowski, n.d.)
Don Schwager quotes “You tear yourself apart by hating,” by an anonymous early author from the Greek church
"We have seen how murder is born from anger and adultery from desire. In the same way, the hatred of an enemy is destroyed by the love of friendship. Suppose you have viewed a man as an enemy, yet after a while he has been swayed by your benevolence. You will then love him as a friend. I think that Christ ordered these things not so much for our enemies as for us: not because enemies are fit to be loved by others but because we are not fit to hate anyone. For hatred is the prodigy of dark places. Wherever it resides, it sullies the beauty of sound sense. Therefore not only does Christ order us to love our enemies for the sake of cherishing them but also for the sake of driving away from ourselves what is bad for us. The Mosaic law does not speak about physically hurting your enemy but about hating your enemy. But if you merely hate him, you have hurt yourself more in the spirit than you have hurt him in the flesh. Perhaps you don't harm him at all by hating him. But you surely tear yourself apart. If then you are benevolent to an enemy, you have rather spared yourself than him. And if you do him a kindness, you benefit yourself more than him." (excerpt from INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW, HOMILY 13, The Greek Fathers) (Schwager, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 5:38-42 comments that we may not have warm feelings for our adversaries, but by keeping our eyes on Jesus, we can wish for their good. This gaze happens most effectively in prayer: intimate prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, convicting prayer while reading the Gospels, joyful prayer of praise and thanksgiving, and fruitful prayer after Communion.
The radical love and mercy Jesus is asking of us can only come into the world one person at a time. So when you want to retaliate, look at your struggle as an opportunity. When you respond to evil with God’s goodness, you are pouring the love of Christ into human hearts.
“Lord Jesus, I need your inexhaustible grace. Stay with me on my journey through this rough terrain.” (Meditation on Matthew 5:38-42, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler comments on the mistreatment of Naboth by Jezebel, wife of King Ahab, to take the vineyard from him that had been granted by God. Jesus extends the intention of the lex talionis in the Sermon on the Mount by instructing us to turn the other cheek and go the extra mile. Friar Jude suggests that our generous response may cause evil to be deflected.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, offers his own basic overview of the stages of spiritual development, which also account for our developmentally appropriate psychological needs.
My body and self-image are who I am.
We focus on our own security, safety, and defense needs.
My external behavior is who I am.
We need to look good from the outside and to hide any “contrary evidence” from others, and eventually from ourselves. The ego’s “shadow” begins to emerge at this time.
My thoughts and feelings are who I am.
We begin to take pride in our “better” thoughts and feelings and learn to control them, so much so that we do not even see their self-serving nature. For nearly all of us, a major defeat, shock, or humiliation must be suffered and passed through to go beyond this stage.
My deeper intuitions and felt knowledge in my body are who I am.
This is such a breakthrough and so helpful that many of us are content to stay here, but to remain at this level may lead to inner work or body work as a substitute for any real encounter with, or sacrifice for, the “other.”
My shadow self is who I am.
This is the first “dark night of the senses”—when our weakness overwhelms us, and we finally face ourselves in our unvarnished and uncivilized state. Without guidance, grace, and prayer, most of us go running back to previous identities.
I am empty and powerless.
Some call this sitting in “God’s Waiting Room,” but it is more often known as “the dark night of the soul.” At this point, almost any attempt to save ourselves by any superior behavior, morality, or prayer technique will fail us. All we can do is to ask, wait, and trust. God is about to become real. The false or separate self is dying in a major way.
I am much more than who I thought I was.
We experience the permanent waning of the false self and the ascent of the True Self as the center of our being. It feels like an absence or void, even if a wonderful void. John of the Cross calls this “luminous darkness.” We grow not by knowing or understanding, but only by loving and trusting.
“The Father and I are one” (John 10:30).
Here, there is only God. There is nothing we need to protect, promote, or prove to anyone, especially ourselves. Our false self no longer guides the ship. We have learned to let Grace and Mystery guide us—still without full (if any) comprehension.
I am who I am.
I’m “just me,” warts and all. We are now fully detached from our own self-image and living in God’s image of us—which includes and loves both the good and the bad. We experience true serenity and freedom. This is the peace the world cannot give (see John 14:27) and full resting in God.Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 2009), 164–166. (Rohr, n.d.)
We consider the tension between the way of the world and Jesus' Way of love and self sacrifice as it plays out in our daily interactions with people in our environment.
References
Kalkowski, J. (n.d.). Daily Reflection Of Creighton University's Online Ministries. OnlineMinistries. Retrieved June 17, 2024, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/061724.html
Matthew, CHAPTER 5 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 17, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/5
Meditation on Matthew 5:38-42. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved June 17, 2024, from https://wau.org/meditations/2024/06/17/1002408/
1 Kings, CHAPTER 21 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 17, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1kings/21?1
Psalms, PSALM 5 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 17, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/5?2
Rohr, R. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved June 17, 2024, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/a-maturing-spirituality/
Schwager, D. (n.d.). Do Not Return Evil for Evil. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved June 17, 2024, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2024&date=jun17
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