“HONEY FROM THE ROCK”
Monday, 13th June 2016,
Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time
1 Kgs 21: 1-16;
Ps 5: 2-3, 5-7;
Mt 5: 38-42
OVERCOME EVIL WITH GOOD!
Today’s gospel describes how to pass from the ancient justice of the Pharisees (Mt 5: 20) to the new justice of the Kingdom of God which should exceed, surpass the justice of the Pharisees (Mt 5: 20). It describes how to go up to the Mountain of the Beatitudes, from where Jesus announces the new Law of Love. The summit is described in one phrase: “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5: 48)
Vengeance asks for “eye for eye, tooth for tooth”. Jesus asks to pay back evil not with evil, but with good, otherwise the spiral of violence will take up everything and we will not know what to do. Faithful to the teaching of Jesus, Paul writes in the Letter to the Romans: “Never pay back evil with evil; let your concern be to do good to all men. Do not allow yourselves to be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12: 17-21). The best way to deal with evil is by letting God handle it! Let us ask ourselves: Have I some time felt within me such a great anger as to want to apply the vengeance “eye for eye, tooth for tooth”? What did I do to overcome this? Does life in community, living together, favour today in the Church and in us the creative love which Jesus proposes in today’s Gospel?
Prayer: Lead us O Lord, on the path of perfection. Amen.
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