7th Sunday C, 2007.
This whole sermon of Jesus
may seem a bit unfair on his followers.
Why should we be good to those who are bad to us?
Why should we be kind to those who are unkind to us?
Why should we give to those who are ignoring us?
The answer is that Jesus wants us to experience life
as good, loving, non-judgemental and compassionate people.
He wants us to experience life
as he, the Son of God experienced it.
So he tells us that we don’t have to copy people
who curse and hate and treat us badly.
We don’t have to steal if our neighbour is a thief,
we don’t have to ignore needy people
just because our neighbour does so.
We don’t have to return a sharp word for a sharp word,
mock in return when we are mocked
and ignore those who ignore us.
The temptation is often great to give like for like
and this is why we pray: ‘lead us not into temptation.’
We are free people,
we can choose to follow the advice given here by Jesus.
We don’t have to be slaves of bad conduct.
This is illustrated in the conduct of David,
as we have heard it in the first reading.
You’ll remember that the people of Israel were lead
directly by God from the time they left Egypt
to their settlement in the Promised Land.
There all the little nations round about them
had a king for a leader. So like children often do,
they wanted to be like the others and asked God for a king.
God advised them against it but they insisted (1 Samuel 8:-)
And so they got Saul as the first king of Israel.
Saul was a big, strong man, but he did not listen to God.
Then little David came along and he got Saul out of trouble
by killing Goliath. Saul took David into his army
and the boy became a great commander and more popular
than the king. Saul was filled with jealous hatred against David
and he wanted to kill him.
David was forced to run but he had a few supporters with him.
One night they entered the king’s camp unnoticed and David had the opportunity to kill his persecutor, but he did not do it. He had higher standards than the king had.
Today’s Gospel sets very high standards before us.
Let us accept the challenge.