7th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Genesis 45:3-11
I Cor. 15:35-38, 42-50
Lk. 6:27-38
“ABSORBING THE HATRED”
As always, it is very good to be together this morning to support each other in our faith and to share in this Eucharist. When I was coming through the front entrance this morning, Diana, one of our greeters, told me that she had been listening to a podcast this week from someone commenting on today’s gospel about loving your enemies. The podcaster stated jokingly: “We should love our enemies, but do everything we can do make them feel terribly guilty about their actions.” Clever….Great to laugh together this morning….and thanks Diana for adding to our Gospel Wisdom today.
Two weeks ago, I was watching PBS News Hour and there was a segment on about the war in Gaza…as there is almost every night. The segment showed a Palestinian woman, sitting in the bombed- out rubble of her home, alone and sobbing. She said that her husband had been killed, and two of her three children were also killed this past week. She was in shatters! Broken beyond belief. At the end of the scene, the newscaster asked her what was now going thru her mind, after experiencing all of this devastation and horror. She paused…then fiercely looked straight ahead and said: REVENGE! REVENGE! I WANT NOTHING BUT REVENGE!
I get it… the most normal and understandable of human emotions. Who would not also respond in this way. “I wish to retaliate and get revenge.” I suspect that I would initially feel the same way. How would any of us respond after such horror? Who knows how to stop the hatred, the violence, the killing, and the revenge found in Gaza right now? Hopefully, some type of wise diplomacy may ultimately prevail…….but Gaza is certainly at this time a profound example of the Hatred and Revenge that is found not only in the political sphere, but which seems to permeate the human heart in so many ways. It makes me feel so sad.
And yet… there must be a more hopeful way… another way. Who was it who said… possibly Martin Luther King?” that an eye for an eye, makes us all blind” and “that a tooth for a tooth leaves us all hungry and starving.”
How do we stop the Hatred and Violence that seems to be everywhere? How do I stop the violence in my own heart?
The two readings of today’s scripture… the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis and the story of Jesus teaching from the Sermon on the Mount… what I call… The Loving Imperatives… provide us with another Wisdom Way. In these two readings, it seems to me that there is a Cathedral… a Tsunami of Spiritual Wisdom, which is extremely difficult… but essential for Christian Living.
The Gospel today… along with the Beatitudes of Last Week…give us the core of the teachings of Jesus… a call to Extravagant, almost superhuman love… that is so challenging and difficult. And so many critics would say Terribly Naive.
This teaching of Jesus….and Joseph who forgave his brothers who left him for dead… is dumb founding… crazy in the eyes of the world… so out of bounds to our normal way of thinking. It seems that as one scripture commentator says “that Jesus never learned the Basics of Playground 101. “When you get hit, you hit back, even harder.” But Jesus chooses to play the game of Unconditional Love—-Not Unconditional Reprisal. This teaching of Jesus will certainly thin the crowd of His followers.
Let me take a moment… and slowly read… from our Gospel Today… the 11 direct Imperatives that Jesus gives to us. They are so counter-cultural. They are so boldly explosive in their capacity to do good. We need to let them ring in our ears:
LOVE YOUR ENEMIES
DO GOOD TO THOS WHO HATE YOU
BLESS THOSE WHO CURSE YOU
PRAY FOR THOS WHO ABUSE YOU
TURN THE OTHER CHEEK
GIVE TO THOSE WHO BEG
DO TO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEN DO UNTO YOU
DO GOOD AND LEND
BE MERCIFUL
DO NOT CONDEMN
FORGIVE
Let me share with you a true story from a Netflix movie I saw two weeks ago that puts flesh on this gospel for me today. It is called “The Railway Man.” It is the story of a British Officer in World War II who was captured by the Japanese and spends almost three years in a POW camp in Burma, continuously tortured, brutalized, starved and beaten. He survives his captivity… returns to Britain but struggles with a horrible PTSD which keeps him from living a normal life… depression, suicidal thoughts, unable to hold a job, horribly aberrational behavior. After 25 years, he discovers that his primary Japanese torturer is still living. He returns to Burma to seek his revenge upon his enemy and to kill him. But when he captures his former torturer, he cannot kill him. He drops his knife and walks away… and returns to England. He continues to brood over his situation. Two years later he returns to Burma… meets his Japanese torturer again. The Japanese soldier falls to his knees and begs the British Officer for forgiveness for the horrible atrocities he committed. And the British soldier says this which is heroic almost beyond belief:
“I WILL NEVER FORGET WHAT YOU DID TO ME AND
AND TO MY FELLOW SOLDIERS.
BUT I MUST FORGIVE YOU.
THE HATRED MUST STOP SOMEWHERE!”
Powerful stuff! It seems to me that this is what Jesus is teaching in this Gospel today: THE HATRED MUST STOP SOMEWHERE! We are challenged and commanded by Jesus TO ABSORB THE HATRED WHEN WE EXPERIENCE IT… AND NOT PASS IT ON. This takes incredible courage and spiritual poise. Who of us will absorb the hatred and the never-ending nature of Violence when it comes our way?
Jesus did this… forgiving his killers from the cross. Joseph did this…. forgiving his brothers who tried to kill him. Martin Luther King and his followers did this in their non-violent resistance to racism. Nelson Mandela did this in South Africa, when he forgave his jailers of 27 years. Non-violent resistance is the name of the game for us Christians.
In writing about the nature of violence and hatred, Richard Rohr, one of the great spiritual writers of our time, says this:
“IF YOU DON’T TRANSFORM IT—YOU TRANSMIT IT.”
This does not mean that we become Doormats for Jesus….spiritual wimps… letting people walk all over us. Of course, we have the right to defend ourselves when in danger. If someone broke into my home and was threatening my wife and family, I would fight tooth and nail to defend them. I am not a pure pacifist. Of course, we have the right to speak up for what we believe to be right and just. But this teaching does mean that we practice what the Buddhists call… “FIERCE COMPASSION”….We passionately challenge and fight what is wrong and unjust….but refuse to hate or attack our abusers and haters. We absorb the hatred and refuse to pass it on. We strive to imitate God who is Merciful to the just and the unjust alike. Tough to do. We choose to break the never-ending nature of violence. Our haters and enemies turn us into themselves by their toxicity. In Jesus… and in his teaching today… this seduction to imitate violent power has met a firmer resolve. Love your enemy—do good to those who hate you. These are not just flowery statements of long ago… but they are the linchpins of a tough, gutsy practice that can change world.
Again, I share another true story with you that puts flesh on this Gospel for me. It is a very personal story, and I am hesitant to share it publicly. Sometimes very personal things shared publicly can backfire. But I share this with you this morning because I trust you… and I love this Community.
Over 34 years ago I resigned the Catholic Priesthood and chose to serve God in other forms of ministry. This has worked out more positively than I could have ever imagined or hoped for. But when I met a person of authority in the diocese to discuss my decision, at the end of the meeting he said three things that wounded me deeply. He insinuated that I was a scandal to the Catholic Community. He told me that I could no longer receive communion until I received a dispensation from the clerical state from Rome, which could take years. He told me that he thought it best that I should leave town. I was stunned. What I saw as a vocational shift, he saw as a moral failure. He had no idea how deeply his words stung. The anger and animosity I felt from this experience has stayed with me way too long. It took me a long time to let go….and the animosity and bitterness is gone now. But I will never forget what he said to me. It took me a long time to transform that experience. “If you don’t Transform it—you will Transmit it.”
We all have personal experiences of woundedness like this in our lives… hurtful words from family members or friends or co-workers or people with authority over us… these experiences tempt us to violent response… but as followers of Jesus… we absorb the violence and refuse to pass it on. NO EASY TASK!
So… it is important for us to ask ourselves this morning: “Who is Enemy for me right now? Who still chokes my heart and dominates my thoughts and keeps me from Loving? Whom do I need to bless rather than curse? PAUSE FOR A BIT OF SILENCE…. This is not a teaching for the Weak.
I close my homily this morning with a quote from John Shea, one of the greatest theologians and storytellers of our time. He writes this about this Gospel: “This teaching of Jesus about loving our enemies is not just a wonderful ideal for which to strive. This teaching of Jesus is based upon Human Truth and Experience. If our actions are chronically judgmental and condemnatory—then they will turn back upon us… swallowing us with their negative fury. When I am fiercely righteous, I never see my own fury. My inner state of condemnation seems to target others, but it is secretly bringing me to judgment. What I think is harmful to other people is harmful to me. How we treat others becomes how we are treated. These words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount, are not recorded as simply objects of belief. These words are meant to illumine the truth of human experience. If we look deeply at life, we will see that what they teach is true. Initially, the seeing is fleeting. We will see it, and then not see it. But with steady practice, we will come to see the Truth. And as the wonderful author, Flannery O’Connor, humorously once said: “The Truth Will Make Us Odd.”
I continue to struggle in my practice of this challenging teaching of Jesus……Love your Enemies…. Do good to those who hate you,” for verbal violence can easily trip off my tongue. Hate feels so good sometimes. But this is where we need each other as a Community of Faith. We lean on each other to live the Wisdom of Jesus… IN DIFFICULT TIMES LIKE THESE.
TO ABSORB HATRED AND REFUSE TO PASS IT ON
TO TRANSFORM VIOLENCE AND NOT TRANSMIT IT.
TO ATTACK IDEAS AND ACTIONS AND NOT PERSONS.
We can do this with the Grace of God. I wish you God’s Peace.
Respectfully Submitted
Steve Zwettler