3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

The English poet John Donne has a very famous book of meditations known as Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions. It consists of countless meditations that he penned while suffering from cancer. Although, the book may not be familiar to you, there is a meditation, known simply as meditation XVII (18) that may be very familiar. It is the meditation wherein a very famous and beautiful paragraph has come to be known simply as “no man is an island.” Though the entire paragraph is incredibly moving, it is the first sentence which has become very popular and of which I would like to quote right now.

It says: “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” It was a recognition, on Donne’s part, that, on some level, we are all connected and in communion with each other. On some level the person sitting right next to you is your brother or sister. On some level, we are part of a great human family. He explains this earlier in his meditation when he says: “The church is Catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does, belongs to all. When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to that head, which is my head too, and ingraffed into that body, whereof I am a member. And when she buries a man, that action concerns me; all mankind is of one author.”

In Christ, then, we are all part of one body.

This is the mystery and the beautiful message that St. Paul, in our second reading today, conveys to all of us. That we are all part of a larger Body, a Mystical Body, that is not limited by city, state, world, universe, time and even death itself, because Christ has restored what was divided, Christ has reconciled what was once separate.

As St. Paul beautifully puts it:

“God placed the parts, each one of them, in the body as he intended.” And, as he further says: “God has so constructed the body as to give greater honor to a part that is without it, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same concern for one another.”

So, when we look upon the world, upon each other, when we see someone in need, we should not see a person without purpose, without importance, but as one who needs to be supported, one who needs to have a voice while theirs is still developing, one who is not weak, but needs the strength of the body before them.

This is why people on January 18^th, marched for life, so that they could be that voice for the unborn. This is why many are voicing their concerns about the bill that was passed in NY this past week. This is why, too, when my father was violently taken away from our family 26 years ago, whose anniversary is tomorrow/today, it was family and friends that helped us to endure.

Because, it is then, in a very real way, we come to truly understand those words of St. Paul that, indeed we: “are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it.”

We build up that Body of Christ, when we look beyond ourselves, and realize we are not an island entire of itself but a larger part of the main, part of the greater and beautiful Mystical Body of Christ, part of the true communion that we experience and will receive in the Most Holy Eucharist shortly.

For, truly, to see Christ in our neighbor is to know who we see in that Eucharist, and, by doing so, the Body, the Mystical Body becomes a tangible reality, in the world, in our neighbor and in our lives so that we then see the part that we make up, who and what we are in that Body, and truly live it, the way all of us are called to live, indeed, as one Body in Christ.

In our Gospel today, Jesus places before us a great challenge, to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, to seek what is seemingly impossible by loving not just those who love us back, but those who might very well hate us. Jesus is telling us to go beyond loving our neighbor and to love our very enemy as well.

What’s more is that it seems that He is telling us that in order to do this, we are, in his words to: “offer no resistance to one who is evil.” And, while it is true that Jesus always encourages the more non-violent approach, these three ways He gives us show a more creative way in which to deal with our enemy.

In fact, He challenges the very popular phrase at the time, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” with the suggestion that we give the other cheek. While, at the outset it may not seem too different, this is actually a gesture of defiance, because in order for one to be hit on the right cheek it would have to be done with the back of the right hand.

In biblical understanding, this was symbolically how a master might strike a slave. Therefore, when Jesus says we are to give the other cheek, the left cheek, this is a symbolic gesture of one being equal with the attacker. This puts the attacker in an awkward position, in trying to strike a second time, and, in fact, is actually a non-violent way of standing one’s ground and of refusing to be further insulted.

The same thing is true when Jesus encourages the handing over of one’s cloak as well as their tunic. In biblical times, the Jewish people wore two principal garments, an interior garment and an exterior. The interior was a tunic, it covered the whole body and extended down to the knees. The second garment was called a "cloak," or a mantle.

It was typically the wealthy who would be able to have a cloak, and, in fact, one’s wealth was judged on how many garments they wore. If a poor person, however, had a cloak, it might be the only one they had, and it was common for them to use them as a bedcovering.

Now, in the Biblical times if a poor person borrowed money they would use those garments as collateral for a loan, and if the person was really poor, they would use their cloak. On cold nights, they would need something to cover themselves with, so there was a requirement that the garment had be returned to the poor person every night for warmth. However, he was also required to return the garment each morning until the loan was paid back.

If these requirements were not met by either the poor person borrowing the money or the one lending the money, there would be a lawsuit.

What Jesus is saying then is that by giving their cloak and their tunic, they are giving everything they own, even the clothes upon their back.

In Israel, shame comes upon the person not who is naked but upon the one viewing the nakedness, so the humiliation then is on the accuser.

Lastly, a Roman soldier was allowed to have a slave carry his pack for only one mile, anything beyond that puts the soldier in violation of military law. Jesus then is putting the burden or the punishment on the soldier not the one who is “going the extra mile.”

In each case, Jesus is showing creative ways in which to not give up our dignity as humans and as Christians, but to non-violently oppose our accuser.

This is the way He is saying we are to respond to our enemy, but He is still asking us to love them.

The question then, is how do we love our enemy?

The typical response is that while we are obliged to love all, we don’t have to like them. That is, though we are not too fond of the person we wish them no harm or that nothing bad befall them.

And, while that is the general understanding of how it is we are to love our enemy, it still seems to fall short, because our enemy, no matter how much they hate us, is still a human being, our enemy is still one molded and shaped by the hand of God.

That is why Jesus shows us another way, by His example as he laid upon the Cross. Because, from the deepest recesses of His heart, He does not say: “Father, condemn them, let your wrath fall upon them,” or “strike them dead at this very moment,” no, His response is different, He says: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

He takes the very epitome of evil, the worst that humankind is capable of and He asks for forgiveness, He asks for sanctification, He asks that the most evil action become transformed and blessed by the Father.

Jesus then shows us that, indeed, it is possible to love our enemy, when we love the person with God, that the only way to love our enemy is to pray for them, because prayer is the greatest form of love that any of us can offer. It puts us at the heart of bringing those whom we cannot find forgiveness for, those whom we may hate or who, in turn, may hate us, and turns it into good, by blessing it, by blessing us, by blessing them.

Because, no matter the evil that was done, no matter the hate that exists, prayer levels the playing field, placing both our enemy and ourselves before God, placing us in the very presence of Love. So that while we stand in His presence, it becomes merely impossible to not love even our very enemy.

That is what Jesus means when He says we are to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, because perfect love can only exist within God Himself, and if we seek to bring ourselves before Him who is Love, standing side by side with our enemy, in the end, we will see it is not just our neighbor whom we are to love but even, and most especially, our enemy as well.

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Lord, if you will (Sundays and Solemnities)

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