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The second reading reminds us that the spiritual is built on the human. The other readings give us examples of being a victim. How does this relate? In the first reading David, an innocent man, is being hunted down for the kill by the jealous king Saul. David is given the chance to get the upper hand, to gain revenge, but he does not. He turns it into an opportunity to show that he is actually a better man than the king. What is Jesus saying in the gospel about victims of injustice?
There are victims of painful or abusive relationships, bullying, parents who seem overbearing or over demanding. There are victims of disease, prejudice, and terrible injustices. I dare say, everyone in this church has been a victim one time or another.
One the one hand I want to address those who are living in, or recovering from, an abusive relationship. When you hear “be merciful as your Father is merciful, stop judging and you will not be judged...” do not let Satan twist this into thinking you can not confront unhealthy or inappropriate behavior. Jesus still confronted these.
On the other hand let’s address the victim mentality. We can use it as a means of being excused for the responsibility of our actions. “After all, look at what I have been through!” Jesus calls us beyond this typical human response to the supernatural.
This gospel passage of “turn the other cheek” challenges His followers to live and to love radically. When we are offended or hurt, how do we respond? “You shout at me, I will shout louder at you. You hold me down; I will bite your hand.” The Italians have an old proverb. “Revenge is a dish that people with taste can eat cold.” So you can bide your time for revenge, hey? Not exactly the example given by David in the first reading and by Jesus in the gospel. What is Jesus saying?
Perhaps it is “take control of your life and your reactions.” Negative force generates negative force. Do not let those who would victimize you determine your behavior. Take the initiative to love, to care, to give. Human behavior is a matter of choice. We choose how to respond. Ours is the choice no matter what the situation.
An infamous rivalry of “one-upmanship” was between Sir Winston Churchill and Lady Astor. Once she told him, “Mr. Churchill you’re drunk!” He immediately said, “Yes, but your ugly and in the morning I’ll be sober.” So she responded, “If you were my husband I would poison your tea.” To which he said, “If I were husband I would drink it!” Something inside us says, “Right-on Winston.” But Jesus calls us to a super- human response. We can not live it without His grace and life in us. Where are you going to find it? Here in this church and now.
By the world’s standard Jesus’ teaching is unreasonable, irrational, and foolish. We believe that it is the foolishness of Jesus that will save our society and world. How shall we choose to respond and to live? By whose standards will we make responses?
Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross. A friend once reminded her of a cruel thing someone once had done to Clara. Miss Barton seemed not to recall the incident, so her friend protested, “Don’t you remember that?” She replied, “No, I distinctly remember forgetting it.” Respond radically. Love radically.
In college philosophy we read Alexander Scholtzanitzan and Viktor Frankl. Scholtzanitzan was sentenced to a Russian gulag in Siberia. He wrote, “One night lying on my bed of straw I realized I was becoming consumed with anger, bitterness, and resentment. Then it came to me that evil is not per se from Marxism, Capitalism, Fascism, or any other political philosophies that dominate societies. It comes from the heart of man.”
Viktor Frankl was a psychologist living in Vienna, Austria when he was arrested by the Nazis and he lived in a concentration camp for three years. His wife did not survive. In his book, “Man’s Search for Meaning” he wrote that what gave him hope in his darkest hours was to cling to his wife’s image, which he “remembered with uncanny acuteness. I heard her answering me, saw her smile, her frank and encouraging look.” “For the first time I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth, love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which one can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human thought and belief have to impart: the salvation of man is through love and in love.”
We have all been a victim. We have the power to choose how to respond. But we need His life living within us to raise us above the “human plane” to the level of a grace filled life.