Daily Reflection Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

Sharing does not come natural to us. Sharing our toys, our money, our time, our lives – this behavior must be learned and developed. It is only natural to want to preserve ourselves – who we are and what we own. The instinct of survival – of self-preservation – may come into play here. So we can become defensive in order to protect our fortune and our fate … it’s only natural. 

Today, Jesus instructs his disciples to move beyond this defensive instinct and to cultivate a capacious attitude toward the life around us. He says, “You have heard it said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” We find this law in the Book of Exodus, 21:24. In the ancient world, this law served a viable purpose which was to establish boundaries for acts of revenge. The ruling restricts the level of violence allowing for a just proportion between the crime and the punishment. 

However, this is yet another example of how Jesus seeks to reverse the values of the world. Notice that Jesus does not pronounce judgment on who is wrong or right. Rather, we should stand ready to forgive the one who offends us. To be sure, forgiveness does not suggest that we simply excuse a person from responsibility. Instead, we choose not to harbor a grudge or seek vengeance against the other. We can focus so much on the faults of another that we may lose our way of following Jesus Christ.