Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
If I call myself a Christian and really take it to heart, I should feel I am living in a foreign land. If I truly live out the precepts of Jesus, I should live a life shunned by many people. As well, if I call myself a Christian and am liked by everyone I meet, there is probably something wrong. Most days, my life is a mixture of trying to live the Gospel and trying to fit in. The back and forth, push and pull, and tension of living with contradiction is, and always will be part of being Christian.
In the passage from 2 Corinthians, Paul reminds me, with great rhetorical effect, how children of the Kingdom must live: "We are treated as deceivers and yet are truthful; as unrecognized and yet acknowledged; as dying and behold we live; as chastised and yet not put to death; as sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many; as having nothing and yet possessing all things." His words simultaneously penetrate to the depth of my heart and make me want to shrink away. I can assuage where I am by claiming resistance or weakness or fear, but I am confronted all the same. Truthfully, St. Paul's intention is meant to encourage as much as to convict. In the Gospel passage from the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus speaks in a simple manner. Despite the temptation to 'interpret' what I read, Jesus' words are clear and direct: "Offer no resistance to one who is evil…turn the other cheek, …" To be a participant of the Kingdom, Jesus tells me exactly what I must do, however counter intuitive I find it to be. Jesus directs me to 'actively participate' as a child of the Kingdom while inhabiting a world that seems hopeless and contrary to the Kingdom…where everything “human” calls for and justifies retaliation and self-interest reigns. It is always going against the grain, meeting resistance, and dealing with human feelings and emotions that beg me react out of anger instead of love or respond in like manner rather than kindness and generosity. It's an impossible place to be for extended periods of time—except by the grace of God.
"'Behold, now is a very acceptable time. Behold, now is the time of salvation." (2 Cor 6:2b) This day, I hope I can graciously receive from God the grace to accept, in a deeper way, the contradictions inherent in authentic Christian living. I pray my faith is deepened and my hope renwed by the graces so freely bestowed in service of God's Kingdom.
--Gail Lyman