The gospel passage today makes us want to recoil a bit because it is telling us to do something that seems unnatural. If someone plucks out your eye or tooth it only seems right to want to pluck theirs right out in return! It's only fair! But the passage tells us that this type of behavior only perpetuates the negativity involved. If one counters the negative with what is not only positive but consciously generous then a whole new dynamic begins to be involved and negative people and negative situations can begin to change. The one who strikes two cheeks will be more likely to stop and think about what he is really doing, and perhaps want to change his way. The one who receives two articles of clothing when he wants to rob you of one, might decide to change as well. If you go two miles with someone who asks you to go only one – will see and feel the presence of God in what is occurring. When we give to those who ask and not turn our back on those who want to borrow then we are not only being generous ourselves but we demonstrate God's own care, compassion and generosity working through us.
The same idea is found in the first reading: we have received the grace of God: let it not be in vain: there are all kinds of negative things to be done to us by the world because we bear the name of Christ and his gospel; yet it is Jesus and his Father and the Spirit who make it possible for negativity to be turned into something positive for the good of those who hear the message of hope and see the way the disciple is unaffected by ill-treatment.
God wants to provide a lamp for our feet, a light to our path as we trudge the road of life to a happy destiny! The oil for the lamp is our generous offer to be instruments of turning the negative into the positive by our grace-filled endurance of suffering for the good of others! Let it be so today!
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