Thinking
about Law 19,1-2.17-18; 1 Cor 3,16-23; Mt 5,38-48
The creation of man
was an act of love. When God made him, he said, “Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness.” Therefore, since the beginning the human being is called
to act as God does. Acting as God does is to love. Everything one does in his
earthly journey should lead him/her in this direction. Like that, we can understand
the reason of the law in the Old Testament, which says, “Be holy, for I the Lord
your God, am holy.” This law is the reference of holiness for the Jews. Because
of the holiness of God, the people who were chosen by Him are called to be holy,
and way to achieve this goal is “to love their neighbour as themselves.” The expectation
of God is that they may act likewise he does. The second text tells us that the
Holy Spirit was given to us and he lives in us; thus, our life became a temple
of God. This confirms our call to holiness according to God’s plan from the
beginning. The presence of the Holy Spirit within us is the support we need so
that our actions may be holy.
The teachings of Jesus
are focused to bear new relationships between the people and God and between the
people themselves. He shows that the perfection of the Father is the motivation
for the perfection of his children. To be like the Father is not impossible, because
Jesus himself showed step by step how to approach God and how to live like him
in his love and generosity. The expression “eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”,
mentioned by Jesus, is called “Lexis
Talionis” (Law of Retaliation). This Law was not prepared to be motivation to
violence or revenge, but it is intended to prevent uncontrollable revenge, “and
thus to protect the person who makes a mistake in order should not be given the
punishment greater than the offense which was done." Truly, this law was
born because “many times the punishment was greater than the bad action done.” Even
so, the result of this law does not reflect the will of God, who commanded the
people “to love their neighbour as themselves.”
As the intention of
Jesus is to recover the original plan of God, he decided to teach the people in
different way. He does not force his disciples to assume this commitment, but in
order they might follow him truly, there are some conditions. While other
people love only those who love them, the disciples of Jesus should love even
their enemies and to do good to those who hate them. This is the love lived
without limits and that it is own characteristic of the Christian’s love. To
live the love in this way is condition so that we may be children of God who
bestows his gifts in equal way to good people and bad ones. He does it because
it is his way of acting and because he wants that we should learn from him.
Although we do not deserve his gifts, we cannot put limits on his generosity.
The true disciple of
Jesus “does not resist an evil person”, but gives a “different cheek of life”,
that is, a different way of acting. This means to give him/her an opportunity to
think better and to change his/her way. This is also a good occasion to reflect
about the presence of evil in the world. This situation is not work of God, but
result of human freedom. God himself is the first one who wants to eliminate the
evil of the the world and for that he strengthens the disciples of his Son to do
good to others, without judging the their behaviour, that is, “to do good
without paying attention to whom you are doing so.” With God’s help, we can
overcome the evil because God himself has the good habit of changing bad situations
into good ones and the reality of death into way of life. The death of his Son was
an evil act of men, but he changed this situation for the good of their
salvation. Very clear witness of that is when Jesus was on the cross, tortured
by his enemies, he prayed for them to God the Father and also defended them,
saying that they didn’t know what they were doing.
From the example of
Christ, who is also called also “The prophet of non-violence”, a unique way to
overcome it is to answer with peace signs. Jesus wants that our attitude should
overcome the tendency of society to revenge, violence and tribalism. Tribalism
destroy the fraternity, denying our identity of children of God. According to
Baba Mt Francisco, “the condition of our identity as children of God” is the
attitude of mercy.” As followers of Jesus, we are not better than other people,
but we should act differently, that is, “to show other cheek.” When we hate our
enemies, we give them power upon us: power over our sleep, our appetite for
food, our blood pressure, our health and our happiness “(Dale Carnegie). In
short, we cannot allow that evil person may decide how we should act.
There is a chronicle,
which speaks more about that. “A writer named Sydney Harris tells us an event
that happened when he was accompanying his friend to the magazine shop. His
friend greeted newspaperman with much respect, but as an answer, the man mistreated
him. The friend of Harris accepted the magazine that was thrown in stupid way
towards him, smiling respectfully and wishing a good weekend to the
newspaperman. Later, as they walked along the way, the author asked his friend,
saying, “Does that man have this bad habit always?” “Yes, unfortunately, he does.”
“Do you have attitude polite and friendly to him always?” “Yes, I do so.” “Why do
you continue doing good to him if he misbehaves you?” “Because I do not want
that he may decide how I should act.”
It is Jesus himself
who invites us to act in the same way. According to him, the evil cannot remove
the evil, but only the good can do that. Let us live the love as Jesus did and,
through this love, we may be able to build the society, which God expects for
his sons and daughters.
Fr Ndega
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