Monday - 11th Week of OT 2017 - Practicing Self-Restraint

We’ve been reading through the Sermon on the Mount now for a week in which Jesus teaches his disciples throughout all the ages about living blessed lives, holy lives, lives that shine with the brightness of God’s goodness. We are to strive for blessedness by following God’s commandments, the moral law, and Jesus’ teachings.

Jesus recalled the fifth commandment earlier in the sermon, “You shall not kill” calling us to revere human life as sacred. The Lord calls us to such reverence for our brothers and sisters that we are to avoid not just murder, but even anger, hatred, and vengeance.

Today, he goes even further: “When someone strikes you on the one cheek, turn the other to him as well.” To most of the world, this sounds like weakness: being a pushover. But those who follow the message of Christ are anything but weak.  There is tremendous strength shown in turning away from the inclination for revenge.  Revenge is easy.

When someone strikes you on the right cheek, the immediate reaction is strike back them, or to begin plotting their punishment or demise. It’s easy to retaliate, to curse at someone who offends us, to return an insult for an insult. We even see this fallen behavior in little children, who break the toys of their brothers and sisters because they were mean. Revenge is easy, and it base, juvenile.

And Jesus offers another path, the path of moral and spiritual maturity.

Now, when it comes to turning the other cheek, Jesus is not saying we should be doormats and pacifists. Jesus offers clear words about take up a sword” for self-defense. Never does he condemn, say, military service.

But he is clearly teaching us here, that we are not simply to follow every desire that we have, starting with the very deep, nearly instinctual desire to strike back at those who hurt us: either physically or verbally, and including our desires for food, sex, money, gambling, gossip, and control.

Jesus calls us to be people of peace: and that requires self-control in the face of hostility, well-trained powers of discernment in order to know how best to act in a particular situation, and the ability to be humble when our egos are bruised.

May the Lord continue to lead us and guide us in the way of blessedness, to heal and raise up our wounded fallen natures, and transform them into instruments of God’s goodness for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That our bishops and clergy may be zealous in preaching and teaching the truth of the Gospel, and that our future bishop of the diocese of Cleveland may be a man of true faith and the Holy Spirit.

For all of us who struggle with disordered attractions, sinful inclinations, and temptations to serious sin, for the grace to remain faithful to the teachings of Christ, and for mercy for those who fall.

That our young people on summer vacation, may be kept close to the truth and heart of Jesus.

That the love of Christ, the divine physician, may bring healing to the sick and comfort to all the suffering.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for the deceased priests and religious of the diocese of Cleveland, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.