Gospel according to Saint Luke 6:27-38:
Jesus said to his disciples: “To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic. Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back. 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? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, and get back the same amount. But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
“Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give, and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”
To err is human; to forgive, divine
Luis CASASUS President of the Idente Missionaries
Rome, February 23, 2025 | VII Sunday in Ordinary Time
1Sam 26: 2.7-9.12-13.22-23; 1Cor 15: 45-49; Lk 6: 27-38
The 13th-century Persian mystic Rumi wrote: The safest place to hide a treasure of gold is a desolate and unnoticed place. The wisdom of the Beatitudes speaks to us of a treasure hidden in the darkest and most somber human experience. Christ teaches us that life is hidden in death, wealth in poverty, and liberation in suffering.
That is what we were meditating on last Sunday. Today, Christ continues his paradoxical teaching, now encouraging us to love those who hurt us, those who hate us or despise us with indifference, slander or injustice.
The First Reading is a very special story of forgiveness. Indeed, it is a forgiveness granted in the midst of a tense, violent situation, of real war. Faced with the immediate possibility of killing Saul, his persecutor, David decides to spare his life, saying to his commander Abishai: One cannot attack the anointed of the Lord with impunity.
Although it is the language of the Old Testament, the reason for forgiving anticipates what Christ teaches us today: Be compassionate, as your Father is compassionate. And our Father is compassionate with all his children, those we call righteous and those we label as sinners. He always hopes to be reunited with them all, as the parable of the prodigal son teaches. The Second Reading suggests the same thing: We, who are the image of earthly man, will also be the image of heavenly man.
If we understand that charity is love that is not deserved and is NOT a feeling, we will understand what compassion Christ is talking about; of course he is not advising us to “Have towards an enemy the same feeling that you have towards a friend”, he is not asking us to feel sympathy towards Herod, whom he himself harshly described as a “fox” (Lk 13:32), but to forgive for the same reason that He forgave: We do not know what we do. This is true; although it may seem the opposite, we are not masters of our decisions, nor can we imagine all the pain that they can cause God and our neighbor.
For any of us who do NOT have present, close to the surface, the continuous forgiveness we receive from God himself, it will be impossible to “improvise” forgiveness when offended. Their automatic reaction (unfortunately, that is what it must be called) will be one of these:
– To withdraw, to move away immediately, as far as possible, from the person who offends them.
– Abandon the religious community, the parish or the Church, if in his alienation he considers that the bad example of the offender has more force than the testimony of the saints and of those who want to be saints.
– Diplomatically and courteously conceal his indignation, but make plans to keep his distance in the future.
– React with implacable and perhaps cold criticism (murmuring, defamation, irony…) when talking about the person who offended you, without confronting them directly, but trying to destroy their reputation.
– Protest violently, raising your voice, lecturing the offender or showing your anger and rage with gestures.
All these attitudes or reactions to events are easily manipulated by the devil.
Even Nietzsche (1844-1900), who was not exactly a fervent Catholic, observed that resentment stems from an inability to respond at the moment the wound is inflicted. For this philosopher, resentment arises because we do not give ourselves space to react to something that we found hurtful and disrespectful in the past, and we want to make amends in the present. He did not have the opportunity to experience that the Holy Spirit always provides us with the most intelligent and merciful way to respond to offenses.
The forgiveness that Christ proposes to us is not inaction, but constructive and creative, as the following example shows.
A pizza delivery man told how one of his workmates was robbed at knifepoint. When that colleague returned to work and told the manager what had happened, he said that he had given all his money to the thief and then had reached into his back pocket and had also given him all his tip money. Some of his coworkers said to him: “What? Why did you do that? He did not know that you had that money in your pocket!” And the young man quoted Jesus’ words about turning the other cheek and not refusing to give your tunic when someone steals your cloak.
Following this teaching of Christ gave this young man the opportunity to live his faith and bear witness to Jesus. He also had the opportunity to talk to his work colleagues about his faith. We never knew if this story changed the thief, but the young man did not let the thief change him.
Turning the other cheek to the aggressor means unequivocally sending him a message: I do not wish to be separated from you. This, in effect, must always be creative, truly inspired and unexpected. That explains why Jesus gives us so many different examples today: bless those who curse me, look for ways to do good to those who hate me, pray for those who defame me… Each offense and each person needs a form of forgiveness that they can understand.
The forgiveness that Saul, the future St. Paul, received (Acts 9) is a paradigm of what God does with you and me every time we are mediocre or recalcitrant: through more or less striking events and through the people he puts in our path, he makes us understand exactly how he wants us to walk with him, what form of service he expects from us to help him open the hearts of our fellow men.
Many wonder what the point of forgiveness is if violence, corruption and hatred dominate our world and, moreover, few people are willing to change profoundly, as illustrated in the parable of the unmerciful servant (Mt 18: 21-35). This parable teaches us how most of us, DESPITE having received divine forgiveness continuously, resist repentance, which should arise from the gratitude of those who have been forgiven. But sooner or later, sometimes immediately, sometimes a long time later, even at the end of life, forgiveness changes a person’s soul and allows them to feel the divine caress clearly.
Of course, we all know striking cases, such as the following, quite famous, which is in the category of what many call “unexpected forgiveness”.
Julia is a former policewoman who was found guilty of the murder of the young Mario. The case made world news due to the circumstances surrounding the crime. Julia shot and killed him in his own home, claiming that he had mistakenly entered the wrong apartment and thought he was a burglar.
Julia was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Many people outside the courtroom disagreed with the sentence, insisting that it was too lenient. Inside the courtroom, one voice was allowed to be heard, that of Mario’s brother. He made a statement forgiving Julia and explaining that he did not wish her any harm. Instead, he encouraged her to seek Christ. He looked at Julia and told her he wished her peace and comfort. He then asked the judge if he could go over to Julia and give her a hug, which is what happened.
There was widespread crying in the courtroom, and even the judge had to wipe the tears from her eyes. Her sentence was not commuted, but her heart was undoubtedly relieved, making everything very different.
—ooOoo—
So, for Christ, what does it mean to be compassionate? Most of us are satisfied with the idea that being compassionate means being kind and showing sympathy, but there is something deeper, something even more powerful, in its meaning. The origin of the word helps us to understand the true breadth and meaning of compassion. The original word, in Latin, cumpassio means “to suffer together”. Compassion means that the pain of another person becomes my pain. True compassion changes the way we live and the way we treat others.
But it is not just any compassion that we should show. Christ proposes a divine level to us: our compassion should be in imitation of the Heavenly Father. In fact, compassion seems to be another synonym for God. The psalmist sings of God’s compassion: The Lord is merciful and righteous; our God is compassionate (Psalm 116:5).
Hopefully, you and I will be moved by the numerous examples of forgiveness found in the Old and New Testaments. It is not just information; nor is it simple history, nor is it by chance. The inspired books have something essential to tell us. A few examples will suffice: the story of Paul, Philemon and Onesimus; Stephen’s forgiveness of his executioners (Acts 6: 8-15); the divine protection that Jonah received after his infidelity (Jonah 1: 15-17); Esau’s mercy towards Jacob (Gen 33); Joseph’s clemency towards his brothers who had sold him (Gen 50: 15-21); Jesus’ public forgiveness of the adulterous woman (Jn 8: 1-11)…
The so-called Golden Rule is a simple principle of reciprocity found in almost all the world’s religions, philosophies and cultures: do unto others as you would have them do unto you, or its inverse, do not do to others what you would not have them do to you.
But the cases that Christ cites are different from that general principle: Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. He is obviously not asking us to expect our actions to be reciprocated by others. The reward he promises comes from God and not from man. This frees us to show compassion, love, kindness, mercy and generosity to others without expecting any payment in return from those who are our beneficiaries because we are sure that God will know how to make use of our modest forgiveness in a great way. Immediately, in the heart of the forgiver; when He determines, in the life of the one who receives the forgiveness.
_______________________________
In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Luis CASASUS
President
