Turn The Other Cheek Or Show Compassion?

When Jesus told us to love our enemies and turn the other cheek - did he perhaps mean more than what we see on the surface? What if one of our greatest enemies were ourselves? The White Robed Monks of St Benedict believe that Jesus never said no to anyone and try to focus on the lessons that Christ came to teach humanity - that of unconditional love.

Transcript

Jesus said to his disciples, But I say this to you who are listening, Love your enemies, Do good to those who hate you, Bless those who curse you, Pray for those who treat you badly, To the man who slaps you on one cheek, Present the other cheek too, To the man who takes your cloak from you, Do not refuse your tunic, Give to everyone who asks you, And do not ask for your property back from the man who robs you, Treat others as you would like them to treat you, If you love those who love you, What thanks can you expect? Even sinners love those who love them, And if you do good to those who do good to you, What thanks can you expect? For even sinners do that much, And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, What thanks can you expect? Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount, Instead love your enemies and do good, And lend without any hope of return, You will have a great reward, And you will be sons of the Most High, For he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked, Be compassionate, As your Father is compassionate, Do not judge, And you will not be judged to yourselves, Do not condemn, And you will not be condemned yourselves, Grant pardon, And you will be pardoned, Give, And they will be gifts for you, A full measure pressed down, Shaken together, And running over, It will be poured into your lap, Because the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given back, The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. This is a very, Almost contentious reading. It's also one of the most well-known readings, I think, In the Bible, Where Jesus himself tells us how to love. But it's so easy to place the emphasis on the first part of the Gospel of St. Luke, Where it almost seems as if it is okay for us to just play dead, Just to give over to the world, And to let malice run free, And to let people who want to hurt us, Hurt us, Because Jesus says so. Then we see the second part, Where the focus shifts from allow all these things to happen to you, Into how we should live, Be compassionate, As your Father is compassionate, And there starts the true journey of Christ, And the true message of Christ, Love each other as God loves you. Love each other as God loves you. Do not judge, Judge so that you will not get judged. Do not place yourself in this role of godliness. Grant pardon, And you will be pardoned. Do not condemn, And you will not be condemned, And all of these things. But what stands out is be compassionate as your Father is compassionate, Because that is how we gather gifts. Now it's easy to ask, Father, But what about the first verse, The first couple of verses, Where Jesus says to turn the other cheek, And to allow these things to happen. And it's important to ask these questions. We should always ask questions, And you should never feel guilty for asking. And if somebody doesn't know an answer, I don't believe it is their right to then chastise you for that, To make you feel unworthy of anything because you have asked the question. And it's also okay for if somebody asks you a question to say, I don't know, Or to answer them, This is my understanding, This is my truth. So when somebody would ask me, What about the first couple of verses in the Gospel of St. Luke, Should we now discard that, But how can we discard sections of the Bible and choose, You know, Nitpick what we want to believe and how we want to believe it. For me, This whole journey, This whole passage of Jesus saying how to love and what not to do is about emptying ourselves. Let God's will be done. So that when I go through challenging times in my life, I don't necessarily fight against the times. I make the best of those times. When strife happens in my life, Instead of spending all my energy on fighting with God, And how dare you do this, How dare you as a loving God make me feel pain and suffering and anguish. It's normal for us to do. I do it daily. I question God and I often question God's plan and I think it's healthy. But instead of getting stuck in that and fighting constantly, I like to see these things, When Jesus says treat others as he would like them to treat you, We start showing each other respect and we start showing each other that I recognize God in you. I recognize the fact that you are part of the divinity of God, Just as I am. So I don't think Jesus told us to not stand up for ourselves and not stand up for what we believe is right. I think Jesus told us here to let God into those decisions and to recognize God in all of these things. And it sounds, I think, Like I'm speaking very theological theory at the moment. So how do we make this practical? How do we actually bring that concept into our daily lives? That is where becoming still is really important. At least once a day. To take time out to quiet down. To take time out to let these surface thoughts run wherever they want to. But we step out of those thoughts and we step, We go one level deeper, We take the stairs down into the basement, Into our spirit, Into our soul. And we become aware of the fact that there is silence. There's this beautiful healing silence. There's this space where nothing exists. And from that nothingness we experience giving ourselves over to God completely, Becoming part of that nothingness. And as soon as we become that, We realize that this nothingness is everything. That in that silence of where we sit and we meditate and however we get into that space, Into spirit and into soul, And we become aware that God is emptying God's self into us. And there we start in that silence. We start hearing God. We start experiencing the presence of the Lord. And once we can start connecting with that, We climb out of that room slightly. And as we start hearing, We go up the stairs and we start hearing these surface voices, We are still connected to that stillness and to that voice of God. And we can ask for every thought that we have, Is this your will? Is this part of your plan, Lord? And if it is so, Help me. Help me to understand it. Help me to experience it in the way that I should, Knowing that you never leave me, Because in these times it is so easy to think that God isn't there. God has left me because I'm such a sinful person. How can God love me? That's one of the silly thoughts that we have. How can God love me if I'm such a bad person? If I've sinned so much, If I have fallen so many times in my life, I don't love me. How can God love me? My parents don't love me. My church doesn't love me. My community doesn't love me. How can God love me? First silliness. Second silliness. God has left me because I have done X, Y, And Z. I stopped praying. I stopped recognizing God. And I'm not talking about God in a purely Christian, Catholic way. I'm talking about God, Pure love. God has left me because of what I have done, What I am, And who I am, Who I believe is God, Who I love. All these sillinesses. That's silliness number two. Silliness number three. God doesn't have time for me. I don't matter. Why would God take time for me? And then we come back and we read Luke. And we think about the fact that we go into that space where God is, God is always, God is all time, God is everywhere, God is all. Which means that the three sillinesses that we make ourselves believe are just excuses for not connecting with God. Because maybe instead of fearing the wrath of God, We are fearing the awesomeness of God. And then we use those three excuses because God loves all. God is all. How can God not? God is a God of love. Love, God, Transcends any religion. God is love. So how can we as human beings now come and say, Oh, I'm too unworthy to love. You're not that strong. You're not that powerful. I'm sorry. God loves you. I saw a bumper sticker today at church. God loves you whether you like it or not. And that's so true. God loves all. God doesn't say, Oh, You are in this specific denomination of Christian church. Hence, You are worthy of my love. And then the next person, You are in a different denomination. So you are worthy of a bit of my love, Half of my love. And then the third person, Oh, You are not a Christian at all. So you are not worthy of my love. That is absolute bull. God loves us all because God resides in all of us. And then we can take silliness number two and three together. I've done so bad that God has left me. Or God doesn't have love for me because how can God love and have time for somebody as insignificant as I am? God tells us that we matter. Nothing we can do can remove us from God. All that we do as human beings is we close our eyes. And then we find ourselves in darkness and we forget that this radiance of love of God is all around us. We must just open our eyes. And back to the reading that we did. If we can start living our lives from that point, When I am in a communic- if I'm communicating with a person, Do I consciously say to myself, In you resides God? Have you ever tried that? Try it. This week's challenge, Even just for a day, Try it. Every single person that you get in touch with, As soon as that link is made, Say to yourself silently, I recognize the divinity in you. The divinity in me recognizes the divinity in you and see how that whole day is just different. If you can do it for two days and you can do it for a week, See how your life changes. And it's easy for me to stand here and to say that because I don't. I forget it's human, Part of our human nature and part of our human destiny, I think, To forget that we are all divine. Because inasmuch as we read here, Allow others to treat you badly. Don't bless those who curse you. Love your enemies, Do good to those who hate you. Let's read this a bit differently. When you look in the mirror and you hate yourself, What do you do? Love yourself. When you curse yourself for being an idiot, What do you do? Bless yourself. When you treat yourself badly, Pray for yourself. It is so easy to just give and give and give and give and give. And to forget that the divinity that is in each other, In the other person, In every other being on this planet, Is also in you. So, Today when we then think about God as our Father and the love of the Father, There are so many lessons. But it comes back to these beautiful, Beautiful words of the Gospel. Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate. And I pray that all of you will remember that whenever you need it. To remember to show compassion to each other and to yourselves. Amen.

Reviews

Thank you for the reminder to see the Divine in others when we are communicating with them. "The Christ in me sees the Christ in you." ☀️💝💝

🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

lovely talk. i will try that tomorrow…saying, God dwells in you 🌹 see you at the rosary in a few hours ✨⭐️💛

Very good. Thank you.

I will try this challenge!
I also loved your 3 "silliness" points 😊🙏