Making the World Christian
Today’s first reading is very dramatic. Unfortunately, the reading in the lectionary that we actually will hear at Mass is an abridged version that leaves out some very interesting parts. Hence I have included the whole story below.
The story is that of Saul, the first King of the Jews, who is soon to be replaced by David. Saul obviously feels threatened and is encouraged by his followers to ‘nip’ the challenge to his kingship in the bud, by killing David. But the point of today’s reading is that David refuses to repay Saul with revenge, and refuses to kill him when he has an easy chance to do so, and even without anyone knowing that he had done it. In the ‘real’ world that was politically stupid.
But the desire to get back at someone who has hurt or is trying to hurt oneself, brings up the theme of revenge - the desire for which, I believe, is rooted deep in our very selves. There are certain values that I would suggest that human beings all over the world, very early in life accept as important values in our lives, e.g. the values of love, justice, and even honesty. And when we (rightly or wrongly) believe we are being treated in ways that go against these basic values, it seems to be hot-wired into our systems that we respond with the desire to ‘hit’ back, or take revenge.
And since the Old Testament, as I have explained before, is the story of the Jewish pilgrimage recounting its developing relationship with God (Yahweh), and because human beings tend to create God in our own image (till a new revelation like Jesus’ radically changes it), it would explain why in the Old Testament, we have numerous statements that speak of God as a vengeful God: “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance on his foes, and vents his wrath against his enemies”. (Nahum 1:2). And if that was not enough, we have Yahweh telling the Jews to also dispense justice in the same vengeful manner: “But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.” (Exodus 21:23-25). It must however be noted that even in the Old Testament there is a toning down of this vengeful teaching in certain sporadic places. So in Proverbs we are taught: ”Do not say, “I’ll do to them as they have done to me; I’ll pay them back for what they did.” (Proverbs 24:29). But in general the vengeance theme holds sway in many parts of the Old Testament.
This was another reason why Jesus’ teaching created so much discomfort, and rejection by the Jewish religious establishment. After all, many of us, like the Jews, feel that a tit-for-tat kind of justice is right. So when Jesus teaches: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.”. (Mathew 5:38-41), he is obviously going against a basic instinct of human beings.
But while revenge does offer some kind of ‘satisfaction’, some recent studies suggest that revenge also further embeds the feeling of victimhood and of pain, and tends to create a vicious cycle of retaliation. Like the monkey who can just about manage to put his hand into a very thin-necked bottle to pick up a biscuit, but when he holds on to the biscuit, he cannot remove his hand unless he lets go of the biscuit. Revenge does not allow us to get our hand out of the world of pain unless we let it go.
Whether these studies are true or not, is something we can judge for ourselves by an honest reflection on how the ‘revenge’ we may have taken at some time, has affected us. Has it healed us, has it healed the relationship, has it healed the world in any way?
Here is a story that touched me, challenged me, - and, of course, I don’t think I could ever do this myself. It is narrated by Dr Ann Russo a professor of gender and women’s studies:
“Marietta Jaeger-Lane found herself with conflicted feelings of revenge and forgiveness in response to the man who kidnapped and murdered her daughter. Her shift from rage to forgiveness was based on her faith and values; she reflects that ‘however I felt about this person, in the eyes of the God I believed in, he was just as precious as my little girl.’ Interestingly, almost one year later, the man who kidnapped and killed her daughter called to ‘taunt her’. Because of the spiritual work she had done, she found herself responding to him from a feeling of ‘genuine concern and compassion’. As this ‘thwarted his intention to rile me up and then hang up….I asked him what I could do for him; he broke down and sobbed heavily. Our middle of the night conversation lasted for 80 minutes. When the call finally ended, I was left hanging on to a silent phone’.
Being truly Christian, the way Jesus asked us to be, surely does go against our most basic desires. But it is perhaps the only way to heal ourselves and our world, which surely needs healing. And while we may not be ‘Christian’ enough to do what Marietta did, or even have the opportunity to do that, we do get small, sometimes even microscopic, opportunities in our daily lives to live a truly Christian life. For example, there may be a situation when we were refused help by a colleague, and the time comes when the tables are turned - will we refuse to help? Or somebody smirks and does not keep the elevator door open for us even though they can see us rushing to catch it - and then the situation is reversed - would we hold the door open for that very person? Or when a colleague or neighbour pointedly does not invite one for a function - do we too then do the same to that person when we get the opportunity? And so on and so forth. Perhaps we need to search deep within ourselves to identify these ways by which we subtly, and not so subtly, take revenge.
For it is in NOT choosing revenge that we make the world a little more “christian’ place. For making a Christian world is not about converting the maximum number of people to an institutional religion, but rather creating a world that is more Christ-like. I often speculate that Jesus must have found it so terribly difficult at the end to say: “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34) That perhaps was his last temptation - not to forgive. But, again I speculate, it is only when he could do that, that he really could die in peace with the words: “Into your hands I commend my spirit!” (Luke 23:46).
The coals glow
then flare up again,
Before they tire out,
and die into ashes.
Revenge is like that.
First Reading: 1 Samuel 26: 2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23
So Saul went down to the Desert of Ziph, with his three thousand select Israelite troops, to search there for David. Saul made his camp beside the road on the hill of Hakilah facing Jeshimon, but David stayed in the wilderness. When he saw that Saul had followed him there, he sent out scouts and learned that Saul had definitely arrived. Then David set out and went to the place where Saul had camped. He saw where Saul and Abner son of Ner, the commander of the army, had lain down. Saul was lying inside the camp, with the army encamped around him.
David then asked Ahimelek the Hittite and Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, “Who will go down into the camp with me to Saul?”
“I’ll go with you,” said Abishai.
So David and Abishai went to the army by night, and there was Saul, lying asleep inside the camp with his spear stuck in the ground near his head. Abner and the soldiers were lying around him.
Abishai said to David, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands. Now let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of the spear; I won’t strike him twice.”
But David said to Abishai, “Don’t destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed and be guiltless? As surely as the Lord lives,” he said, “the Lord himself will strike him, or his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish. But the Lord forbid that I should lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed. Now get the spear and water jug that are near his head, and let’s go.”
So David took the spear and water jug near Saul’s head, and they left. No one saw or knew about it, nor did anyone wake up. They were all sleeping, because the Lord had put them into a deep sleep.Then David crossed over to the other side and stood on top of the hill some distance away; there was a wide space between them.
He called out to the army and to Abner son of Ner, “Aren’t you going to answer me, Abner?”
Abner replied, “Who are you who calls to the king?”
David said, “You’re a man, aren’t you? And who is like you in Israel? Why didn’t you guard your lord the king? Someone came to destroy your lord the king. What you have done is not good. As surely as the Lord lives, you and your men must die, because you did not guard your master, the Lord’s anointed. Look around you. Where are the king’s spear and water jug that were near his head?”
Saul recognized David’s voice and said, “Is that your voice, David my son?”
David replied, “Yes it is, my lord the king.” And he added, “Why is my lord pursuing his servant? What have I done, and what wrong am I guilty of? Now let my lord the king listen to his servant’s words. If the Lord has incited you against me, then may he accept an offering. If, however, people have done it, may they be cursed before the Lord! They have driven me today from my share in the Lord’s inheritance and have said, ‘Go, serve other gods.’ Now do not let my blood fall to the ground far from the presence of the Lord. The king of Israel has come out to look for a flea—as one hunts a partridge in the mountains.”
Then Saul said, “I have sinned. Come back, David my son. Because you considered my life precious today, I will not try to harm you again. Surely I have acted like a fool and have been terribly wrong.”
“Here is the king’s spear,” David answered. “Let one of your young men come over and get it. The Lord rewards everyone for their righteousness and faithfulness. The Lord delivered you into my hands today, but I would not lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed.
Second Reading: First Corinthians 15: 45-49
So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.
Gospel: Luke 6: 27-38
“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
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