Revenge cannot be the Christian way

Homily for the 7^th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A 2014

LV 19:1-2, 17-18, 1 COR 3:16-23, MT 5:38-48

Introduction

Mahatma Ghandi once said: “An eye-for-eye and a tooth-for-tooth would lead to a world full of blind and toothless people.”  Actually Jesus had already taught this message in the Bible, in the gospel passage that we have just heard.

Scripture and Theology

Starting with last Sunday’s gospel, Jesus said that he had come, not to destroy but to fulfil the old law of Moses and the Prophets.  In last Sunday’s passage, he improved upon the laws against killing, adultery, divorce and false oaths.  In today’s passage, he improves the law dealing with those who hurt us.  He says: “You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.”

Moses had instructed the people to take “life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.”  By this instruction Moses was not promoting revenge, but ensuring that justice was proportional, given our human inclination to go overboard in retaliation.  And so this law meant that when someone committed a crime, he was to be punished only in proportion to his crime and not more.  If he took someone’s eye, only one eye of his should be taken, and not two.  This law promoted strict justice.

But Jesus is not satisfied with this kind of justice.  He raises the bar for Christians asking them not to claim the eye or tooth which according to the Law of Moses was their due.  And to show how serious his teaching is he gives some extreme examples of how to do this:

·        Turning your left cheek as well, when one strikes your right cheek.

·        Handing over your jacket as well, when a mugger demands your shirt.

·        Going an extra mile, when only one is demanded of you.

·        And lending to those who wish to borrow from you.

For Jesus wants Christians to deal with their enemies in a different way.  “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.”  Once again he is raising the bar for Christians, demanding more from them.  This is his argument.

·        “For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same?”

·        And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same?”

Perhaps if Jesus were preaching today he would say: “If you love only those who love you, how different are you from terrorists or murderers?  They too love each other and only each other.”  Jesus thus challenges his followers to go beyond the common standards of tax-collectors and pagans, of terrorists and murderers.

But why should Christians be held to a much higher standard?  It is because, Jesus says, that Christians are to be perfect “just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  The model of perfect behaviour is no longer the Jewish law, or what is considered normal behaviour for the secular world, represented in the gospel by the tax-collectors and pagans.  The model of perfection is God the Father and Jesus Christ himself.

For God’s way of dealing with us is surely not the way of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”  For when God punishes us for our sins, his punishment is nowhere near what we truly deserve.  He does not take an eye, when we have taken an eye or a tooth when we have taken a tooth.  In fact, often he simply wipes the slate clean and gives us a fresh start, a second chance, after we have confessed our sins and reformed our lives.

Moreover, he does not treat us as people normally treat enemies.  For when we sin, especially when we sin seriously, we break our friendship with him and by definition we become his enemies.  But he does not abandon us; rather he tries to draw us back into friendship with him.  He even sent his Son down to earth, to bring us back to him.  And the Son himself, while suffering on the cross, prays for his persecutors, saying that they know not what they are doing.  In fact it could be said that rather than take a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, Jesus gives his life, he gives his eye and he gives his tooth, so that we who have chosen to be his enemies might be saved.

Christian Life

Jesus is calling you and me to be perfect, just as our heavenly Father is perfect; to imitate him in exercising mercy rather than revenge.  Unfortunately, sometimes we fail to do this, especially when we confuse justice and vengeance.

Justice requires that the wrong-doer is punished sufficiently.  In fact in our Act of Contrition we say: “I detest my sins because of thy just punishment.” Just punishment serves four purposes: to repair the damage done by someone; to reform and convert the wrong-doer from evil to good; to deter others who might be thinking about committing crime and to protect society.  When punishment is sought simply for the sake of revenge it is following the much lower standard of of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; that is not the teaching of Jesus.

Unfortunately such an attitude of vengeance seems to be behind the widespread support for the death penalty in this country.  Although Catholic teaching allows for the use of the death penalty as a last resort to protect people, the same teaching recognises that the situations in which it is necessary to execute somebody are very rare, if not non-existent in today’s world.  Unlike just punishment, the death penalty does not repair the damage done by the criminal, does not reform the criminal, does not seem to deter potential criminals.  All it seems to do is to take an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and a life for a life.

Recently the governor of the state of Washington suspended the use of the death penalty, replacing it with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.  He has chosen to protect society in a non-vengeful way.  It is ironic that the states with the largest numbers of Catholics and Christians also seem to have the greatest support for the death penalty.  And yet as Christians and especially as Catholics, we must promote life, from birth to death, innocent life and as Jesus teaches us today, the life of our enemies.  Why do we who Jesus holds to a higher standard allow ourselves to be dragged down into the culture of death that fills our society?  How can we expect to create a culture of life, when we promote, allow or even rejoice at the death of another human being?

Conclusion

There is no doubt that message of Jesus in today’s gospel is a tall order.  For the human instinct to seek revenge, to get even, to destroy bad people is very strong.  Even when you and I watch a movie, the natural tendency is for us to root for the good guys.  We want the bad guys to get their just desserts.

But again, Jesus never promised that the Christian way would be an easy one.  In fact he said that those who chose to follow him would have to take the narrow path and travel along it carrying their daily crosses.  But he promised that those who would seek the perfection of the Father in this more difficult way would also be rewarded with everlasting life.  Jesus’ way is not easy, but is better.

As we seek justice, law and order, as we deal with those who hurt us, may we be better than the tax-collectors and pagans of our time; may our justice be tempered with mercy and may our love always include even our enemies.