Revenge & Justice

Homily for the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Deacon Thomas Stephenson

February 23, 2014

What is the first thing that comes to mind when we hear the words “an eye for an eye”? Revenge? Doesn’t that strike us as somewhat barbaric? Why would the Lord tell the people of Israel to do this? He gives them these instructions twice, both in Chapter 21 of the book of Exodus, and in Chapter 24 of Leviticus, five chapters after the passages from Chapter 19 that we heard in the first reading today. This just doesn’t seem to go along with what He said about not taking vengeance, or bearing a grudge.

We need to consider what the prevailing custom was at the time, and still is in some areas of the world to this day. Hurt someone, and the retaliation would far exceed the seriousness of the original offense. Capture one of our slaves? We’ll take five of yours. Kill a member of our community? We’ll kill ten of yours. And so on. Things would escalate, resulting in feuds and even wars. In saying an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, God actually introduced some justice into the equation. He was trying to tell the people that the punishment for the transgression needed to be proportionate to the offense. An eye for an eye, but no more than that. This is what the Lord is referring to in the first reading, not hate, not vengeance, but a measure of justice. And, in addition, an encouragement to holiness and love of our neighbour.

This is where Jesus takes things to the next level. He tells us not to just love our neighbour, but also to love our enemy, and even to pray for them. He tells us to turn the other cheek, rather than retaliating in anger. He tells us to give our cloak as well as our coat, to go two miles instead of one, to give to those who beg – in other words, He is asking us to develop a generous and forgiving heart, for those we don’t like in addition to those we do. We are asked to break the cycle of hatred, to make that cycle end with us.

Now, we’re all Christians, which means this is really easy for us to do, isn’t it? Relying only on ourselves, on our human instinct, it is not easy, it may not even be possible. First, our hearts must be transformed through God’s grace; we must be conformed to the will of the Lord.

Our response to any injury or insult should not be based on our need to strike back, but rather on an understanding of the needs of the other person, and a determination of how to defuse the situation. This does not mean continually allowing someone to do us harm, either physically or emotionally; it does not mean we shouldn’t defend ourselves or others in danger. But, depending on the situation, the prudent thing to do is to reduce the hostility, rather than causing it to escalate. When Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek, that is what He is saying – do not return insult for insult. We can see that, during His passion, He put his into practice Himself, never responding with anger to all the abuse He received.

However, we also must remember that Jesus does not forbid our opposition to evil. For example, He regularly challenged the Pharisees. He cleared the temple of the merchants and money changers. Jesus did not hate these people, but He did detest what they were doing. In the same fashion, we can dislike the actions of people who promote evil and lies, but we can still love them as God loves them, as His children, as our brothers and sisters. We can and should always pray that their eyes may be opened and their hearts softened, so that they can turn to the Lord. Will we love them the same way that God loves them? Not exactly, but our challenge is to continue making the effort, growing and maturing as we work on it.

Just as we may not love exactly as God loves, but must keep trying, so too we may not be perfect exactly as our heavenly Father is perfect, but must keep trying. How do we do that? By following the way that Jesus has taught us. He gives us some examples, in today’s Gospel, in what we hear in all of the teachings in the Gospels and throughout Scripture and Sacred Tradition. Our goal is to be perfect in all the ways that the Lord has called us to be perfect, transformed in our hearts and in our souls. Perfection is the state of all those who are in heaven, all the saints who have been welcomed into the kingdom. The Greek word translated here as perfect also means complete. The idea is as much the completion of our work as it is divine perfection. It is once we get to heaven that our work, and God’s work, will be complete.

Until then, let us allow the Lord to work in us, to work through us, to help break cycles of anger and retribution. We cannot do it all ourselves; we need His assistance. Let us ask Him to help us to soften our hearts, in loving our neighbours and our enemies, while never shying away from the sharing the truth, which is one of the greatest forms of love. And let us pray for a spirit of generosity and forgiveness, that we may grow in holiness and perfection.