23rd Week in Ordinary Time

1st Reading: Col 3:12–17
Gospel: Lk 6:27–38
Jesus said to his disciples, “But I say to you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you and pray for those who treat you badly. To the one who strikes you on the cheek, turn the other cheek; from the one who takes your coat, do not keep back your shirt. Give to the one who asks and if anyone has taken something from you, do not demand it back.
“Do to others as you would have others do to you. If you love only those who love you, what kind of graciousness is yours? Even sinners love those who love them. If you do favors to those who are good to you, what kind of graciousness is yours? Even sinners do the same. If you lend only when you expect to receive, what kind of graciousness is yours? For sinners also lend to sinners, expecting to receive something in return.
“But love your enemies and do good to them, and lend when there is nothing to expect in return. Then will your reward be great and you will be sons and daughters of the Most High. For he is kind towards the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
“Don’t be a judge of others and you will not be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven; give and it will be given to you, and you will receive in your sack good measure, pressed down, full and running over. For the measure you give will be the measure you receive back.”

Commentary
Jesus’ ethic to bear insults without complaint and to turn the other cheek is related to his ethic that we love our enemies. Here, the emphasis is as much on our internal attitude, as it is upon the other’s welfare. If we respond to evil in anger or self-defense, we run the risk of becoming attached to that evil and letting it dominate us. The anger and hatred of our attacker becomes our own anger and resentment, at being a victim. But, by bearing and accepting insults and abuse, without losing our own goodwill, we can stay above the hatred and preserve a foundation of spiritual independence and self-possession.
Only by preserving our spiritual subjectivity in the midst of insults, do we build the strength to love our enemies and win them over…to be victorious without disparaging our abusers. Today, we also deal with the justice of turning the other cheek. This assumes the inexorable principle of God’s justice, which sets things right and even vindicates our passivity. Eventually, misfortune comes to evildoers, especially when we accept their insults without responding to them. On the other hand, we grow in God’s grace by enduring persecution, through the virtue of patience.

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