+Today’s readings are very short and very powerful: in the first reading St. Paul is telling the
Corinthians that if they live the very immanent trinitarian life of God himself
which perfection and increase was gifted to them by their entrance into the
Mystical Body of Christ, the Church, as it was by them who are appointed ministers
of the gospel, then two things could be counted on: enduring afflictions,
,hardships, constraints, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, vigils, fasts –
but also purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in
unfeigned love, in truthful speech, in the power of God: with weapons of
righteousness at the right and at the left. It is the contradiction of
opposites that are held together by life in the Spirit – life in God’s own triune,
yet unified existence and life.
In
the gospel passage, Jesus, speaking in the same vain tells us that the perfect resistance
to evil is “no resistance” at all. This is contrary and opposite to our natural
fallen inbred knee jerk reaction to exact even more revenge than the original
act of aggression. But if you have the very life of God, the Trinity, flowing
through even molecule of your being, and into the depths of your spiritual soul
selves, then you can do nothing but love in return – because you will know – if
you are thus connected – that love is all there is: and just as Jesus offered
no resistance at all during his entire Passion and Crucifixion, so we are
called to do the same: so we can share his great act of “revenge” by being raised
to a new level of consciousness and being and offering the salutation of “Peace
be with you!” as his “I got ya” moment. God is a God of love, compassion, forgiveness,
mercy and joy, and so are we if we go deeply inside ourselves: seeking his
face: for we shall surely find it if we do!
All
the ends of the earth have seen the salvation by our God! Amen.
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