Christ the Cornerstone

Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you

The Gospel reading for the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Mt 5:38-48) contains some of the most misunderstood sayings of Jesus:

When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand over your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go for two miles. (Mt 5:39-41)

Is Jesus telling us to be pushovers who allow ourselves to be bullied by others? Why would he counsel us to turn the other cheek, hand over our cloak, and go the extra mile in situations that are clearly unjust? Don’t the demands of basic fairness give us the right to fight back, to insist that we be treated justly?

When we think about this particular Gospel, it’s important to remember that the people who first heard these words were used to the saying “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” They were taught to believe that “getting even” was the appropriate response to any harm done to them. Unfortunately, this is the attitude that causes people to seek revenge rather than justice, and to reject mercy as being incompatible with fairness.

Jesus turns the traditional ideas about getting even inside-out. In fact, he calls for a complete reversal of our thinking:

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. (Mt 5:43-45)

What Jesus is telling us is that we must always remember that every human life—without exception—is worthy of respect. Even our enemies and those who are out to get us (our persecutors) are children of God. They are deserving of our love, and they should never be treated as objects of vengeance or retribution—even when we’re convinced they deserve it!

When we love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, we affirm that we are all sisters and brothers in Christ, “children of our heavenly Father” (Mt 5:45).

In the second reading for this Sunday (1 Cor 3:16-23), St. Paul admonishes the Corinthians, and all of us, saying, “Brothers and sisters: Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor 3:16). By virtue of our baptism, all of us have become temples of the Holy Spirit, for, as St. Paul reminds us, “the temple of God, which you are, is holy” (1 Cor 3:17). As women and men called to holiness, our first priority should be love, not vengeance, and our commitment to following Jesus demands that we “turn the other cheek” (Mt 5:39), as he did.

There is nothing weak or submissive about refusing to engage in violence when we are treated unfairly. When we pray for those who mistreat us, we acknowledge that God’s love and mercy are more powerful than our anger and desire for vengeance can ever be. When we agree to walk the extra mile instead of insisting that it is unfair, we are following in the footsteps of Jesus who accepted the unjust sentence of death on the cross even as he forgave his enemies.

The first reading from the Book of Leviticus (19:1-2, 17-18) provides support for Jesus’ message:

You shall not bear hatred for your brother or sister in your heart. Though you may have to reprove your fellow citizen, do not incur sin because of him. Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against any of your people. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Lv 19:17-18 )

It is human nature to cherish grudges and to nurture the desire for revenge. But the way of life that Jesus proposes demands that we surrender our feelings of bitterness and anger in order to let God’s love and forgiveness take their place.

God’s love is all-encompassing—“for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust” (Mt 5:45). When our hearts are full of love, there is no room for vengeance. When we respect the holiness in others, we become holy ourselves. We become disciples of Jesus Christ who bear no grudges and who forgive others as he did.

Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us love our neighbor and pray for those who would do us harm. Let’s turn the other cheek, and go the extra mile, to show that we are holy as the Lord our God is holy. †