Love Without Frontiers / Borders!

(Homily 7^th Sunday in Ordinary Time Yr-A)

          The overriding word or theme that resounds in all the readings of this Sunday is the solemn invitation to a higher level of holiness, orchestrated by the call to model our lives to the holiness and perfection of the heavenly Father. It opens with the exhortation of Leviticus thus: “Be holy for” and concluded with the words of Jesus in the Gospel: “Be perfect as”. And the profound motive for which we are invited to a life of holiness was indicated, because we are children of the heavenly Father. Again, St. Paul in the second reading re-affirmed our belongingness to God by identifying the Christians of Corinth and all of us as the temple of God. The readings reveal the standard of the Christian ethics inaugurated by Jesus, and indeed, we can see that the Christian ethics always sets a higher standard. Jesus asks for more: “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?” What is so special about that? Jesus asks for extra. He told his disciples: “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt.5:20). Jesus invites us today not just to listen to him or to the word of God, but to follow his footstep (he prayed for his executioners, “because they know not what they do.”) and that of God the Father (who gives the sun and rain to all without segregation). In a nutshell, the readings of today speak of letting go of resentment, unforgiveness and hatred, but instead to embrace the characteristics of God, which are compassion, love, holiness and forgiveness. Indeed, the message of the readings today goes like in a crescendo, from the call to love your neighbour as yourself to Jesus imperative of loving your enemies and praying for the persecutors. Jesus intends to eliminate the very concept of enemy. Love indeed without borders.

          Our first reading (Lev. 19:1-2.17-18) began with God’s intervention and the manifestation of His dream and desire for mankind thus: “Yahweh spoke to Moses and said: Be holy, for I, Yahweh your God am holy”. However, this is framed within the context of kinship and community: “Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against the members of your race”, that is a practical advice on how to model ourselves to the holiness of the heavenly Father. Holding grudges, taking revenge, these are not the ways of Christians, if we want to be holy as God, we cannot indulge in them. The passage indicated some exigencies and implications of the love of neighbour, the commandment desired by God and they are truly demanding. It goes thus: “you will not harbour hatred for your brother…You will not exact vengeance on, or bear any sort of grudge against, the members of your race, but will love your neighbour as yourself.” We are therefore called to love our neighbours. But there are implications for this love of the neighbour: “you shall be holy for I, Yahweh your God, am holy”. In the tradition of the Jews holiness means been set aside, separation from people. But Leviticus sees holiness differently, it does not involve physical separation from people, rather it is to be shown through good deeds like not hating one’s brother, not to bear grudges or vengeance and finally to love one’s neighbour as oneself. Thus, here holiness is to be conjugated with the love for one another. Indeed, our everyday experiences reveal that to live the divine commands of forgiveness and love in the family and community setting is challenging. For many a times, we fall into the temptation of harbouring grudges against those closest to us. No doubt, hatred, grudges and revenge create dysfunctional families.

          Today’s gospel narrative (Mt. 5:38-48) is the continuation of that of last Sunday. Therein, we see Jesus’ interpretation of some of the laws of the Old Testament. He starts by recalling the saying “eye for eye and tooth for tooth” (Cf. Ex. 21:23-25), though this was never applied literally. Prior to the emergence of the Law of Recompense or Retaliation (Lex talionis), in ancient times, when someone is caught committing a crime he pays for his own crime and other crimes that have been committed and were unpunished (eg. If somebody is caught stealing a goat, he will pay for all other goats or other things that have been stolen so far). So to put a stop to this, they came up with the law of eye for eye, for proportionality in the punishment. But Jesus went beyond the old law given by Moses, the law of retaliation: “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” (Ex. 21; Mt.5:38). Jesus proposed a sort of revolutionary ethics: “But i say to you, offer no resistance to the wicked. On the contrary, if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well” (v. 39). One could imagine how our world would have been if all should apply this to our day to day living, instead of taking the paths of opposition and violence, we take that of ‘turning the other cheek’. What Jesus proposes is not passivity or weak submission; rather he proposes taking a courageous stance of disarming revenge and violence. Even in our Nigerian context where violence and persecution have made headlines, violence is not to be responded to with violence. His words in the Gospel may seem to imply a passive acceptance of violence and oppression, but far be it! Violence and hatred are to be opposed with love and forgiveness; strength with apparent weakness. The Christian is one who strives for peace, the examples of Ghandi and Martin Luther King cannot go unmentioned. Christianity does not make me a doormat, a rag-doll or a wimp. Rather it makes me to become extraordinarily strong, because it requires great strength of character and great single minded resolve to be able to forgive, or to turn the other cheek.

          In the second part of the Gospel, he made another qualitative leap, he went further and told his disciples: “You were told, love your neighbour and hate your enemy, but i tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (vv. 43-44). This is the true evangelical revolution. The commandment of the love of neighbour was taken to a maximum perfection, to its extreme consequences. Indeed, many of the listeners of Jesus at this point, must have been tempted to say like the Jews: This discourse is too hard, who can comprehend it? And some might have walked away. Here, Jesus uses a paradoxical language in order to capture the attention of his listeners; however, it is not to be taken literarily. In fact, the human common sense suggests that you love those who love you and greet those who greet you. But Jesus says: For if you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even the tax collectors do as much” (v. 46). Therefore, there is need of maintaining intact the words of Jesus and seek to understand the profound reasons behind them. Why should man or woman act in opposition to his or her natural instincts that propel him / her to react over an offence and to revenge? The answer is this: “so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he causes his sun to rise on the bad as well as the good, and sends down rain to fall on the upright and the wicked alike” (v.45). Indeed, even the responsorial psalm drew our attention to this prerogative of God: “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and rich in mercy. He does not treat us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our faults” (Ps. 103:8.10). Jesus brought a radical change, as he revealed that we are God’s children, who gives his sun and rain to all even to those who offend him.

          Furthermore, the fundamental motive revolves around the invitation: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”, and again in the first reading: “You shall be holy, for the Lord your God am holy.” Jesus went further to give us concrete ways of perfectibility. Be perfect and be holy, are expressions which in the context means, be perfect in mercy, be heroic in love, as your heavenly Father. The word translated as ‘perfect’ in English comes from a Greek word meaning to be “full grown”. This entails that Jesus is inviting us to become full grown, mature followers of Christ. A mature Christian does not take revenge or hold grudges, for they are not signs of love. Love is the DNA of our Christian existence. Full grown and mature Christians love their enemies and pray for their persecutors. And this is the height of Christian perfection! But can we be perfect as God? Or like Christ who from the Cross cried out: “Father forgive them”? It is quite difficult humanly speaking. Jesus gave us objective means of overcoming our little strengths: his words, his example, his grace and his Eucharist. Jesus did not come to present a moral at the measure of man, rather he came to bring man to the measure of God and not God at the measure of man.

          From the efficacy of these means echo the testimonies of the martyrs that forgave their persecutors. We remember the cries of the first martyr Stephen, “he knelt down and said aloud, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them’” (Acts 7:60). Even till today, they continue to give testimonies, many unknown Christians who knew how to win evil with good, to overcome offences with pardon, and violence with meekness. Jesus gives us a new law about revenge: “Offer no resistance to injury.” He says turn the other cheek, go to the extra mile, give to the beggar. Jesus took us from the don’ts to the dos, he went another step further: “Love your enemies” and “pray for your persecutors”. A wonderful example of a saint who prayed for his persecutor is St. John Paul II, who prayed for Mehmet Ali Agca, who attempted to assassinate him. Jesus invariably invites us to see both the enemies and persecutors as images of Christ, whose names, like ours, are written on the palms of God’s hands (Is. 49:16).

          Jesus has taught us to bring down the barriers and frontiers that cage our love in the egoistic garb. The central message of Jesus is that of radical love and radical forgiveness. Indeed, “Love conquers all things and endures all things” (1Cor. 13:7). Furthermore, a Christian should not close the doors of forgiveness with such words as: over my dead body, a whole me etc. The first step to forgiving is to heal those painful memories. When I forgive someone, I set both of us free. Forgiveness has a liberating power. There is extraordinary freedom in having a forgiving heart. Christianity is a religion of love, love mined through the process of forgiveness. The message of Jesus teaches us to treat others, not as they deserve, but as God wishes them to be treated. Therefore, a Christian instead of revenging and bearing grudges he is called to do like his Father in heaven, who allows sun to shine on all without discrimination. For in the words of St. Paul: “This is God’s will for you all, your sanctification” (1Th. 4:3). With the new standard that Jesus has given to us, we have come to understand that in forgiving and pardoning those who offend us we grow and mature in humanity. It is in and through forgiveness that we regain our brothers and sisters that have offended us. Memorable friendships are fruits of the wonderful gesture of forgiveness; marriages and homes in crises are saved and re-joined together after a difficult forgiveness. But unfortunately, we still have those human experiences where Christians are still practicing the law of retaliation ‘eye for eye’, where brothers and sisters live in continuous open and latent conflict.

          In the Second Reading (1Cor 3:16-23) St. Paul focuses on the unique dignity of the baptized Christian and the definition of Christian ministry as service. Therein, he writes to a divided church at Corinth, a church pre-occupied not with the Gospel but with arguments over who should be regarded as the greatest among the teachers of the Gospel message. He responded to the crisis by affirming the dignity of the faithful as temples of the Spirit of God. In a captivating manner, he concluded: “Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life and death, the present and the future, all are your servants, but you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God.” Once again, let us take as point of departure the affirmation of St. Paul: “You are the temple of God. The Spirit of God dwells in you. Holy is the Lord’s temple which you are.” Paul is referring to the Christian Community of Corinth, and this is valid for every Christian community, for every Christian community is a locus of God’s presence, a locus where the Spirit dwells and works. But also the affirmation of St. Paul is valid for every single believer, right from baptism the “Holy Spirit has been poured into our hearts”, through the work of the Holy Spirit we are regenerated to the divine life, we became children of God and “that is what we really are” (1Jn. 3:1). If we are the children of God, and as such participants in his divine nature, we have to make effort to imitate Him. The natural human instinct that propels man for resentment and hatred is the type of wisdom that St. Paul called folly. It does not resolve anything, it does not break the chains of evil instead it perpetuates it. Revenge begets revenge and it continues spirally. The wisdom of God teaches us how to conquer enemies and transform them into friends. In this new ethical paradigm introduced by the Master (Jesus) we can no longer have enemies, Jesus has removed them all and restored them to us as brothers and sisters to be loved.        

         To crown it all, in today’s readings we see the recall of Christians to their fundamental responsibility, their essential vocation, that is our universal call to holiness, auspicated through the words: “Be holy, for I, Yahweh your God, am holy”. “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”. By Holiness we do no mean doing exceptional and extraordinary things, but just as expressed in the Collet of today, the effort and the commitment “to carry out in words and in actions what is in conformity with the will of God.” This is holiness: to live in the will of God, to do the will of God, which has been made known to us through the Scriptures, the teachings of the Church and even by our own good consciences. It is an invitation to live as the Lord desires, in our different states of life. Again holiness consists in the perfection of love, vertically and horizontally (love of God and love of neighbour). The love of God is to be reflected and expressed in the love of the neighbour; the love of neighbour becomes a sign and a concrete and visible manifestation of the love of God. God wants us to treat others not as they deserve, but instead to treat them as God desires. The desire and dream of God is for us to break down the walls and barriers of hatred and revenge, and build a love that abhors hatred and resentment, a love without borders!

(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)