Fr Antonio Pineda
his Sunday’s Gospel seems to ask of us the impossible. We are to offer our left cheek when someone hits our right cheek, and then we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Yes, love not hate. Imagine! Some people criticise Christianity for this teaching in particular. They say that followers of Jesus are just wimps. They say that instead of fighting for what’s right, Christians passively allow themselves to be taken advantage of. But the truth is the most powerful force for change in this world full of conflict and sin is not vengeance or violence, but forgiveness.
Look at the once mighty Roman Empire. It was built by force and violence, but it passed away a long time ago. Christ’s Kingdom, the Church, is built on the deeper power of forgiveness and unconditional love, and it has not only outlasted the Roman Empire, but it is still growing today. It’s the longest-lasting institution in the history of the world, even longer lasting than the ancient Chinese Empires. Note that in the first centuries of Christianity, when the Roman Empire tried to destroy the Church by force, by persecution, it was precisely the Christian’s power to forgive and endure that made the Church grow.
Pagan Romans would watch the trials, tortures, and executions of the Christians. And no matter how unjustly the Christians were condemned, no matter how cruelly they were tortured, they never condemned their enemies in return. Instead, they simply explained the gospel and then lived it out by being faithful to Christ up to death. That example produced a steady stream of converts to the Christian faith because the pagans had never witnessed such self-sacrificing nobility and courage. When we give in to bitterness, hatred, and the desire for vengeance, we lose the power of God’s grace at work in our hearts.
And that power is the only power capable of conquering evil, of ending the cycle of destructive violence, of bringing resurrections out of crucifixions.