Homily for the week of February 20, 2011

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2011

Lv 19:1-2,17-18 • 1 Cor 3:16-23 • Mt 5:38-48

Probably most of you do not realize that the readings from the Bible are not chosen by me but are the same readings that you will have in any Catholic church throughout the world on this weekend. When the Bible passages were put together to form our readings, there was an effort to match the first readings with the Gospel passages chosen for Sundays. This was not the case with the second reading known as the Epistle. The second readings follow their own cycle, which often means that the second reading does not touch on the issues of the first reading and the Gospel. Today is an exception. All three readings have us considering holiness.

And it is appropriate that we should consider holiness today since we have two weeks before we begin Lent. Lent is a time of spiritual renewal during which we try to do more holy things like praying more, cutting back on things like talking on the phone, surfing the internet, eating too much junk food, and using our time, our talents and our money to help others. We do not have a preparation time for Lent. However, we should turn our eyes toward Lent and ask ourselves how we are going to use it.

We are called to holiness. But what is holiness? Usually we think we are holy when are being good, doing good things and avoiding sin. You may be surprised that this is not exactly holiness, for any good person is good, does good and avoids evil. Ultimately, being holy means conforming our lives to God who is holy. Being holy is about a relationship, not about goodness. When we think about holiness we often think of individuals such as the saints like Saint Brother André of Montreal. God and Jesus tell us that holiness is not only for us individually but for the whole community. By community we can include our family, our school, our work place, or most any group we belong to. To be holy we must have a foot in each camp: we must concern ourselves not only with our individual relationship with God, but also with our relationship with the community of believers and that community’s relationship with God.

In our modern society most people think of what is there in this particular action for me? We are self centered. But neither the Bible nor Jesus speak in terms of individuals by themselves. Individuals in the Bible were always bound up in relationships with the family, with the community, and with the nation. There was no “self-identity” outside of these relationships. This is why exile was one of the worst punishments that could be given. To cut off people from their families was to deprive them of their identity.

Our first reading today was from the Old Testament book of Leviticus. The part of Leviticus we read from today is referred to as theHoliness Code. These three sentences outline for us the way to approach holiness. You shall not bear hatred for your brother or sister. Cherish no grudge against anyone, God tells us. These requests of God have to do with our relationships within the community in which we live. We are not to bear hatred toward anyone in our community because God does not. However, we can point out to others when necessary who are doing something wrong, because, if they are doing wrong, everyone suffers. God has a history of correcting those who lead others astray. We take no revenge and we hold no grudge because God does neither of these things. If we do them, we hurt the community. We are to act in love toward those in our community because God does. This love is not about how we feel about someone; it is about our willingness to care for someone.

Over time there developed a system of justice that fell astray from this Holiness Code. A system of retribution and revenge developed.

Jesus gives us an updated Holiness Code, one that goes far beyond the demands of Leviticus. In Jesus’ day, the worst insult was to strike a person on the cheek with a backhand. This insult always resulted in a bloody fight. Honor had to be satisfied. But Jesus said, “No.” Honor is not regained this way. Honor is regained by not retaliating. To make His point He exaggerates by saying we should even offer the other cheek! This would not have been well received at all. The point is that for Jesus, reconciliation and preserving the unity of the community of faith outweigh all other considerations. Jesus is not advising us to let evildoers freely abuse us; rather, we are not to retaliate by the same means. We are to respond with an action that confronts the evildoer non-violently, thus breaking the cycle of violence and opening up a new possibility by which gestures of reconciliation can be reciprocated.

In the last section Jesus deals with the command to love our neighbor. Nowhere in the Bible is there a command or permission to hate the enemy. We are to set no bounds on our love just as God sets no bounds on his divine love for us.

Holiness is found in following the purpose of Jesus’ life: preaching, death and resurrection. All was done to reunite us with the Father, to bring us into community with the Father. For our Lenten discipline and sacrifice, we might ponder how we can achieve this holiness. By the end of Lent, as we celebrate the Resurrection, how can we be better conformed to the person of Christ and bring people together around God’s table of peace?