Thursday of the
Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
(I Kings 18:41-46; Matthew 5:20-26)
Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” explains the meaning of his
call to repentance. In the previous
chapter of Matthew’s gospel Jesus preaches, “’Repent, for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand.’” Today’s gospel passage
continues to describe what that exhortation entails.
Repentance is more than a public sinner’s changing his
ways. It is more than an average
person’s not cursing her adversary. It
is everyone’s letting go of any animosity felt toward neighbors. Put simply, repentance is a conversion of
heart. Jesus challenges his disciples to
forsake the desire for revenge when they are offended. He calls them to reject dismissing a person whom
they find irritating. Rather they are to
seek to know, understand, and to love everyone, especially problematic
people.
We all want to be
esteemed. When someone offends or ignores us, we naturally feel
hurt. We are probably too civil to strike back
physically. Rather, we will say hard words about the
person. More likely, we will harbor demeaning thoughts about him or
her. This is not the way of a follower of Christ. We must
repent. If we look deeper into the person than her bravado, we will find
a child of God also longing for recognition.
As an image of ourselves then, we can understand and love her.
