This Sunday’s Gospel tells us to do the very difficult thing of loving our enemy. “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?”
The homilist says that it is a call for us to be different. Did you know that the term Pharisees actually means to be “Set apart”?
Hence we are actually called to be different from the rest of the world, just like the Pharisees of that time. Some of them gave it a bad name, but it may be noted that not all of them are hypocrites.
So when I first learnt of the idea of how we should turn the other cheek when someone strikes us unjustly, then the question I had was what about justice?
Is it not unfair to be wronged or abused?
Well in truth, this teaching is about forgiveness too. And that truly sets us apart from the rest of the world. A call for us to declare that we are Christian.
For did not Christ himself suffer injustice by being crucified on the cross?
And he did the difficult task by saying “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34
And so we are called to do the same.
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