June 15
Our Lady of Consolation
Weekday in Ordinary Time
Today's Gospel: Matthew 5:38-42
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The world has always run on
retaliation. You
hit me, I hit you back. You take from me, I take from you. An eye for an eye. A
tooth for a tooth. It is the oldest system of justice human beings have ever invented,
and it makes perfect intuitive sense, until Jesus stood up on a hillside and
dismantled it completely.
Do not resist the evildoer.
If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other. If someone wants your
tunic, give them your cloak too. If someone forces you to go with them one mile,
go two miles. The
crowd must have got very quiet.
This is not a weakness. This is
the most demanding thing Jesus ever asked of His followers. It takes infinitely
more strength to absorb a blow and choose not to return it than to simply swing
back. Anyone can retaliate. The world is full of people who retaliate. What the
world has very few of are people who can take the hit, feel the full weight of
it, and still choose something higher.
Our Lady stood at the foot of
the Cross and watched them kill her Son. She had carried Him for nine months.
She had raised Him, followed Him, believed in Him when almost no one else did.
And she watched them drive nails through His hands. She didn't call down fire.
She didn't curse them. She stood. She prayed. She absorbed the worst thing that
could ever happen to a mother, and she chose love anyway.
I have been wronged more
times than I care to count. There were moments where everything in me wanted to
respond unkindly, to defend myself, to strike back, to make sure the other person
knew exactly what they had done to me. But I chose not to. Not because I was
weak. Not because it didn't hurt. But because I learned somewhere along the way
that retaliation is a trap and the moment you step into it, you become what hurt
you, worse than the person who hurt you. I gave those moments to God and kept
walking. That's the second mile. Did it cost something? Yes, but it costs way less
than carrying it forever.
Something to sit with today:
Is there someone in your
life right now who wronged you or hurt you, and what would it cost you to just
hand it to God and keep walking?
There is nothing in this
life worth a response to people who hurt us; all we can do is pray for them
and put it back into God's hands and let him deal with the judgment of the wrong
they did to you. God knows where your heart has been; whether it's in a
relationship, a friendship, or any other situation involving other people, just
know that the Lord will give you peace.
Rosary Man Jim 🌹
Freely given. Freely shared.
