To say that today’s gospel is impossibly challenging would be a massive understatement. Taken literally it’s a recipe for disaster because it would be exposing oneself to exploitation and abuse. And because very few people – if anyone – wants to willingly be exploited or abused, this passage of the gospel is effectively dismissed as undoable, the impractical remarks of a religious daydreamer. That’s a shame because when we leave love out of our practical implementation of the Christian faith there’s nothing of importance left. All our religious practices, observances and traditions make little sense without active love; we should remember St Paul’s remark from the Sunday reading four weeks ago: “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3) Today’s gospel is about charitable love and its practical application.
“These shoes are killing me”. “I’d rather cut my head off than…”. These are just two examples of commonly used phrases that employ exaggeration to emphasise the message we want to convey. We use this method so often and so instinctively that we have long stopped noticing that such an exaggeration makes no sense (shoes don’t kill people) or implies taking an improbable action, such as cutting your own head off. So, we take such statements seriously but not literally. This is the approach we need to apply to many speeches, including those of Jesus. Based on the gospels, he was drawing people in droves who listened to him and often followed him to hear more. This kind of following indicates that Jesus was a highly skilled public speaker, drawing people’s attention and keeping their interest for a long period of time. Incidentally, as I lack such skills, I self-limit my sermons to one page, so it’s over before my audience falls asleep in the pews. One of the methods employed by Jesus in his speeches was an exaggeration; astounding statements that stopped his audience and made them think. He set ambitious but achievable goals and standards. Jesus wanted them to change but such a transformation – however ambitious – had to be doable. For example, walking to the South Pole is extremely challenging but possible; walking to the Moon is not. The former is ambitious, the latter is downright impossible.
So, what’s the meaning of Jesus’ speech in today’s gospel? How do we take it seriously but not literally? Let’s take a closer look at one phrase: “To the man who slaps you on one cheek, present the other cheek too.” Why this one? Because we can see how Jesus applied it in a real-life situation. When he was arrested and interrogated by Annas, the high priest, one of the guards considered Jesus’ answer to Annas’ question to be rude: “‘Is that how you answer the high priest?’ and struck Jesus on the face”. Jesus reacted to such an act of violence by saying: “If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong. But if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?” Jesus wasn’t presenting meekly the other cheek; he stood his ground and defended himself against the assault. But the way he defended himself was devoid of aggression or belligerence.
Let’s return to today’s gospel reading. Its overall message concerns our interactions with other people and our attitudes while dealing with them. Tensions, frictions and animosities are unavoidable aspects of social life. They are the result of different opinions, points of view, attitudes, sensitivities and so on. What is deemed “common sense” by one, can be upsetting to someone else. How do we resolve such conflicts? Quite often instinctively or spontaneously, which usually means exchanging invectives, calling names and pulling no punches (sometimes literally). It results in further escalation, bad blood or vengeful acts. What starts as a verbal blow-up, can quickly turn into a destructive vortex of vindictiveness. It’s not that rare when people have vehemently hated each other for so long that they don’t remember what started it; their hatred has taken on a life of its own. What Jesus calls us to do is a) avoid such escalation or b) defuse the tension or c) break the vicious circle of vengefulness. These are ambitious goals, sometimes seemingly impossible; but they are achievable. Of course, it takes two to tango and sometimes the other party might not be willing to cooperate. But Jesus asks us to take control of what we can – ourselves.