Sunday Homily, February 18, 2007 – 7th Sunday, Ordinary Time
Readings: 1 Samuel 26, 2-23; Psalm 103; 1 Corinthians 15, 45-49; Luke6, 27-38.
Samuel – This book of Samuel is a transition book describing how the Israelites went from being governed by judges to kings. Samuel was the last judge, Saul the first king.
A third dramatic person enters the book, King David. He is the one who killed Goliath with his sling and was King Saul’s favorite for a while.
However, when Saul noticed that the girls liked David more than he, Saul got jealous and tried to kill him on a number of occasions.
Our chapter 27 is one of these occasions. Watch what happens. The theme centers around compassion & mercy.
1 Corinthians 15 – We continue Corinthians 15 with a rather convoluted contrast between Adam, the first human being, & Jesus.
Turn the Other Cheek?
When Rosemary & I are in Mexico at Christmas we always spend the evenings in the village centers because they are enchanting. One evening in Cuernavaca this year I was standing in a one person line in front of a little kiosk selling fruit juice drinks. The kiosk was one of about six that circle the bottom of the bright gazebo. I always get an orange juice with papaya, banana, and strawberry.
As I wait in line behind a woman another woman walks by me, goes straight to the chest high counter, and asks for what she wants. I am a little indignant. I learned in East Africa, where this happens all the time, to simply say something. So I say in Spanish, "Is there no line here?"
At least the woman appeared rather abashed, even though she tried to ignore me. Ultimately, I got my fruit drink, and I was happy that I had not just wimped out, saying nothing because I hate creating scenes and this caught people’s attention.
Is this an example of offering the other cheek?
What about the example of the Amish whose children were recently killed by some deranged man? They did not just tell their kids that they would do well to forgive, but they brought aid and food to the man’s widow and his family.
I find this teaching of Christ just confounding. Half of the time I can’t do it; the other half I don’t want to. A couple of observations.
One, this is another example of the Christian program of infinite demand. The other half is infinite acceptance. We have humbling examples of people who have lived out this infinite demand: the Amish, Martin Luther King & the Freedom Riders, Dorothy Day, Maryknoller Roy Bourgeois, and even outside the Christian tradition, Ghandi in India.
Secondly, our Christian heritage clearly states that the better way is always compassion and mercy instead of hitting back and violence. David was compassionate and merciful to crazy old King Saul. Theologically we have developed a theory that says self defense is acceptable. Acceptable but not the better.
When that little lady jumped the line in front of me, I could have gotten all angry and really made a scene. I could have said nothing, which for me would have been wimping out. What I decided to do some years ago was to simply comment. Was I turning the other cheek?
What have you done when someone strikes you on the cheek, even metaphorically? What do you want to do in light of this reading?