Are Christians supposed to be nice? Is that what it means to turn the other cheek? Sometimes, we can understand that to be a Christian is to be a doormat. We think that to be Christian means to be nice and to be tolerant of all others. While today’s Gospel (Lk. 6:27-38) might seem to support this idea, it is a misunderstanding of Christ’s teaching. Christian love goes beyond niceness to a deeper call of sacrificial love and truth.
Ancient Codes
What does it mean to turn the other cheek? Some of the ancient moral codes limited punishments for certain offenses. We can think of the Code of Hammurabi and even some passages from the Old Testament. For example, we hear about repaying injuries “eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe” (Ex. 21:24-25). What we might not realize is that the Lawgiver is limiting offenses. If someone injures you and loses your eye, you are not justified in taking his life in exchange. In this sense, the law limited retribution. Turning the other cheek goes beyond the moral minimum. It is about not exacting retribution even when we are mistreated.
Blessed Maria Teresa of St. Joseph
Christ goes beyond this with his Gospel teaching. He invites us to truly give of ourselves while serving others. We see an example of this in Blessed Maria Teresa of St. Joseph (1855-1938). She grew up Lutheran and it was a great challenge for her father when she embraced the Catholic faith. Wanting to to serve others but not knowing how, she had no income and was forced to take on a job doing menial tasks within a convent of Augustinian sisters. The humiliation she experienced led her to a deepening of devotion towards St. Joseph. She looked up to him as an example of someone who gave everything to fulfill his mission in life, never counting the cost.
Loving being near the Blessed Sacrament, where she felt “penetrated by the warmth of God’s love,” she knew that something was right in her life, even as so many things seemed to be going wrong. Being Catholic meant a certain tension with her father. She knew how to turn the other cheek. It led to difficulties in practical things such as figuring out what she was doing with her life. But she had Christ in the Eucharist and this was enough to warm her heart.
Not Just a Sales Pitch
Blessed Maria Teresa of St. Joseph found her strength in Christ, even when life was uncertain. But do we follow Christ because it feels good, or is there something deeper? Sometimes, our experience of Christianity can feel like a sales pitch. People list off the benefits that we get from being Christian. I do not doubt that many such people have the best of intentions. But this approach has always felt incomplete to me. Christ does not promise power and prosperity in this life. Rather, he invites us down a narrower path.
Do to others as you would have them do to you. For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? (Lk. 6:31-32)
Why are we here? If we are just looking for our own comfort and success, we are bound to fail. If, on the other hand, we want to be giving of ourselves and help those who are less fortunate, we begin to understand the core of the Gospel. It is good for us to always be kind, but we do not have to surrender when the world attacks the values we hold dear.
Mercy of David
The mercy that Christ models in the Gospel is not entirely new. Sometimes, we look at the Old Testament as a “different god,” an Old Testament god more focused on vengeance than on mercy. We should come to understand rather that God’s mercy is developed and revealed more fully over the course of the Old Testament, finding its fulfillment in the coming of the Messiah. For example, in the story from the prophet Samuel that we hear in the first reading, we see an instance of mercy practiced by David (1 Sam 26). He had the chance to slay Saul, who was seeking his life. He chose not to, because he respected him as king, even though the kingship was being handed on to him.
Maybe we have a classmate who has wronged us. When given the chance, do we throw him under the bus, or do we turn the other cheek? We have the chance to get ahead by cheating on a test but choose to be honest and work hard instead. When we could claim other people’s work as our own, we work humbly, giving praise and glory to God. These are ways we can make Christ’s message of mercy and forgiveness real in our everyday lives. Each day, we choose: will we settle for comfort, or will we live the Gospel? May we embrace not just niceness, but the radical, sacrificial love and truth of Christ.
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