20 February

There is a wonderful trait in us human beings. We are always seeking to achieve another goal, attain another personal best. We can remember the first attempts at climbing a seemingly unconquerable mountain, Mt. Everest. Or the attempt by a runner to break the four-minute mile barrier. So we will go on, searching in other places for new horizons to push back.

Jesus is like that in what he does for us and to us. Just as there are physical horizons which recede even as we reach a certain point, so our Lord gives us moral and spiritual horizons which always remain ahead of us, calling us further and further to respond to his call.

For thousands of years there had been a standard which limited the extent of the revenge which a person could take on another – that the revenge should reflect the extent of the original injury, and no more, as in, “an eye for an eye . . ..” By doing so, even though it may sound cruel to us, the law was improving life greatly, since before that law, revenge could be unlimited! Now, Jesus takes that standard and moves it to even higher ground.  As we look at the four examples which Jesus uses in our gospel(Matthew 5:38-48), realize that the common factor in them all is that we are being asked to give over our will to that of another.  We are being asked to respond in a way that seems totally beyond our capacity. Jesus is in fact showing us what it would be like to respond completely as the will of God would have us do. And then we realize that this is the level on which Christ himself will respond when his time of suffering comes.

Everything in us backs away from seeming to give up control of our lives. But just as we are backing away from that demand, we hear him make an even greater one! Love your enemies, pray for your persecutors, do good to those who hate you. We read this and feel overcome. And then, as we read this, we realize that Jesus himself lived out every single one of these things, and he did not do it because he is totally unlike us, or has some magical resources we do not have. He did it in spite of his sharing our human nature.

We can see these seemingly impossible standards being approached by great and saintly men and women, and we know that we are in the presence of greatness, that we are in act in the presence of our Lord. Their response to his demands calls each one of us to greater response in our own lives. Perhaps you and I will be able to climb that mountain in our future, or maybe sooner.

Peace,

Fr. Bob+