7th Sunday Year A - Homily 1

Homily 1 – 2011 

The recent events in Egypt have been interesting. A whole people rose up against an oppressive regime and, without violence, brought about its downfall. Apparently, they had seen what had happened in Tunisia. Hope welled up within their hearts – and that hope empowered them. They became aware of their possibilities, of their true human dignity – and took action. Their action was consistently non-violent.  It called for enormous courage; and, in their case, it paid off. The protesters in Bahrain and in Libya have not been so successful. Non-violent resistance chooses the way of vulnerability.  It is risky, and does not always pay off.

Over the past few weeks, we have been reflecting on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Jesus had been addressing the oppressed peasantry of Galilee, the poor in spirit, who mourned, who hungered and thirsted for justice and universal righteousness. Jesus had tried to give them an insight into their dignity. He insisted that, before God, they mattered.  He tried to give them hope, and thereby to empower them: theirs is the Kingdom of heaven… they shall be comforted … they shall have their fill…

He made clear that the way to change was through mercy, purity of heart and peace-making. At the same time, he warned that his way was vulnerable.  In a world that resisted change, they could anticipate persecution. Yet, he insisted that his way was the only way that respected human dignity – their own and that of their oppressors as well.  Empowered by hope, they were to take action. They were to be salt of the earth – bringing about change, as they learnt to recognise and to respect their God-given dignity. By the example of the way they lived, they were to be light of the world.

What Jesus says in today’s Gospel could seem, at first sight, to undermine what he had been saying earlier. Offer the wicked man no resistance.  Is he saying: Let oppression and  injustice continue unchallenged? … Forget about your God-given dignity?  … Forget about calling the wicked to live in line with their true human dignity?  [When Jesus was struck on the face during his trial before Caiaphas, how did he respond? He stood tall.  He challenged the soldier to recognise the injustice of what he had done.  He did not make himself a doormat, nor allow another, unchallenged, to make him so.  His path was the path of active, non-violent, resistance.]  Words can be tricky.  What is correctly translated: Do not resist the evildoer, could equally accurately be translated: Do not violently resist the evildoer.  What is ruled out need not be resistance but violent resistance.

Look at the first illustration that Jesus gave. If anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well.  A hit to the right cheek  of another is a back-handed slap. It is the contemptuous action of superior to inferior, of master to servant. Offer the other cheek. What’s going on?  This isn’t submission. This is challenge – not unlike Jesus’ challenge to the soldier who struck him across the face. It is a statement of personal dignity.  It is an invitation to the other to recognise what has been done, and to act instead in a truly dignified manner. It is active, not passive. It is resistance. Crucially, it is non-violent.  And, of course, it is done in vulnerability. It is risky.  It may not work.

Jesus’ two other examples make similar points – though they suppose some familiarity with the historical background to make sense.  Ultimately, all three examples represent, perhaps paradoxically, a choice to love, to cooperate with God in making God’s kingdom come, on earth, as it is in heaven.

In the nitty-gritty of everyday life, effective active, non-violent, resistance to injustice may call for some degree of imagination and creativity.