7th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Fr. Francis)

Called to Holiness

Today’s readings explain why Christians are expected to be holy and how we are meant to become holy people. The first and second readings give us reasons why we should be holy, and the Gospel describes four methods of becoming holy people prescribed for us by Jesus.

The first reading, taken from the book of Leviticus, teaches us that we should be holy because it is the command given to us by God through Moses: “Be holy, for I the Lord, your God, am holy.” It also shows us the way to share in God’s holiness: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The Responsorial Psalm (Ps 103) challenges us to be holy as our God is holy by becoming kind and merciful and forgiving, as He is to us. In the second reading, St. Paul gives us an additional reason to be holy. We are to keep our bodies and souls holy because we are the temples of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit lives in us. In the Gospel passages taken from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches us four methods of becoming holy as God is holy.

We need to become holy: The first method is to abstain from all forms of retaliation. Jesus discards even the milder form of retaliation developed by Hammurabi in ancient Babylon and passed on to Israel through Moses. The policy was one of limited, proportional retaliation (Lex Talionis, “tit-for-tat”): “an eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth,” rather than allowing unlimited vengeance. In place of this limited, proportional retaliation, Jesus gives his new law of love, grace, forgiveness, reconciliation and no retaliation. For Jesus, retaliation, or even limited vengeance, has no place in the Christian life, even though graceful acceptance of an offense requires great strength, discipline of character, and strengthening by God’s grace.

The second method of becoming holy as God is holy is to take the offense gracefully and love the offender. Jesus illustrates this in three images: “turning the other cheek, freely giving the tunic and adding the cloak to it and walking the extra mile.” Jesus tells us that what makes Christians different is the grace with which they treat others, offering them loving kindness and mercy, even if they don’t deserve this treatment, as God does for us. We are commanded to love our enemies as Jesus loves us, with agápe love, not because our enemies deserve our love, but because Jesus loves them so much that he died for them as he did for us.

The third method of sharing in God’s holiness is by unconditionally and whole-heartedly forgiving the offender without planning revenge in any form. This means not only loving one’s neighbors, but also forgiving those enemies who hurt us and seem willfully to cause us suffering, hardship and unhappiness.

The fourth method of becoming holy as God is holy is to seal our determination to forgive our enemies by sincerely praying for their spiritual and physical welfare and for the grace needed for their conversion and renewal of life. Thus, today’s Scripture readings challenge us to become holy as our God is holy by loving, forgiving, and blessing others, even our enemies with graceful and magnanimous love, as our Holy God does.

We need to have a forgiving heart: Jesus demands that we should forgive, pardon and be generous whether or not our offenders deserve it, and even if we are not loved in return. He also tells us to pray for those who, it may seem, willfully cause us suffering, hardship and unhappiness.

We are to try to be perfect, to be like God: We become perfect when we know God’s will and act accordingly. We can do so because the Holy Spirit has been given to us, and He dwells within us, empowering us to do God’s will. We become perfect when we try to love as God loves, to forgive as God forgives and to show unconditional good will and universal benevolence as God does.

Jesus further explains that the things, which destroy perfection and inner beauty, are resentment, anger, hatred, animosity and violence and so He instructs his disciples to love their enemies. As if this was not hard enough, Jesus adds: “Offer no resistance to one who is evil. If someone strikes you on your right cheek offer the other as well”.

I love the story of the elderly American Indian chief who says to the young people that the inner struggle inside us are like two dogs fighting: a good dog and a bad dog. Sometimes, the good dog defeats the bad dog and at other times the bad dog defeats the good dog. After describing what the nature of the inner struggle, one of the young people asked the elder, “Which of these dogs eventually wins the fight?” The elder answers, “The dog you feed more.” This is to say that the quality of food we give to the soul supports us in our inner struggle.

So, has anyone attained a level in life where he or she is impeccably holy? May be not. Holiness is not a destination, but a journey; it is a progressive shift in the art of goodness; it is a growth in our capacity to love; it is the ability and willingness to forgive, and holiness is the ability to respect the body.

A Chinese proverb says: “If there is righteousness in the heart, there will be beauty in the character. If there is beauty in the character, there will be harmony in the home. If there is harmony in the home, there will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world.”

Let us pray for the realization that there is nothing more attractive than Holiness. Amen.

Fr. A. Francis HGN