Sjti Aids Action Youth for Life Program

7th SUNDAY - YEAR A
(Leviticus 19:1-2.17-18, 1 Corinthians 3:16-23, Matthew 5:38-48)
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AN EYE FOR AN EYE

We were created for holiness, and in holiness to glorify God and to denounce evil. After the fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve, humanity fell from grace and started grappling with the reality of sin. We became weakened and the tendency towards sin became our everyday struggle. However, God did not want us to perish in sin. Through different ways and actions, he started calling us back to holiness so that we be restored and reconfigured to his grace. In today’s first reading, God says to Moses, “Say to all generations of the sons of Israel, you shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy.” Even though they had sinned in their stubbornness, God still wanted to purify his people so that they may be as holy as he is.

Christianity teaches us that the heart is the seat of holiness. And when God talks about “being holy as he is,” he is at the same time talking about ordering our lives towards holiness. This means that purifying our hearts is an everyday activity. We will continue falling, but we should also remember that we don’t belong to the ground. We should, therefore, continue getting up, dusting ourselves off and moving on towards a life that God invites us to. We may feel weighed down by sin, hatred, feelings of vengeance, and persecution, but when we allow God to direct our thoughts and actions, we will not stray from his presence and whatever feeling we may have will not dictate how we should conduct ourselves. We cannot be striving for holiness while at the same time harbour hatred for one another. We know that hatred destroys our relationships because it results in vengeance or violence. Jesus in the gospel is talking about “love for enemy.” When we are hurting and do not put ourselves on the road to recovery, hitting back becomes the obvious result. “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” creates more damage because evil cannot be fought with evil. Darkness cannot be dispelled with darkness. Jesus wants us to respond to persecution with love because love is the only virtue that builds, unites, and ultimately dispels evil.

In the second reading, St. Paul says: “Do you know that you are God’s temple and God’s Spirit dwells in you? …God’s temple is holy, and that temple you are.” Indeed, we are the temple of God and by the way we live our life, we should honour this status. When we harbour hatred, we cease to be the temple of the Holy Spirit, but the temple of hatred. We cannot fulfil St. Paul’s words unless we put ourselves on the way to holiness by denouncing anything foreign to the life we aspire for. As Christians, invited to holiness, we need to put ourselves on the path of healing, restoration, forgiveness, love, and reconciliation. Every moment we are alive is an opportunity for us to return to God, holding hands in unity and reconciliation. Indeed, we are privileged to be God’s dwelling, and that is why God constantly calls us to holiness.

Mahatma Gandhi was not a Christian but when he read our Bible, he too believed that “an eye for an eye would make the whole world blind.”

ENJOY YOUR LITURGY
Fr. Arthur Ntembula