THE IMPERATIVE OF HOLINESS

Homily for the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Fr. Ugochukwu Ugwoke, ISch

Scriptural Texts: Leviticus 19:1-2. 17-18, 1 Corinthians 3:16-23, Matthew 5:38-48

 

The three readings of this seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time are focused on the theme of holiness. The first reading instructs us to be holy; the second reading tells us why we should be holy; and the gospel reading shows us how to be holy. In the first reading, God commanded Moses to speak these words to the whole congregation of the sons of Israel: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason with your neighbor, lest you bear sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18).

Holy is the way God is. To be holy, God does not conform to a standard. He is the standard. He is absolutely holy with an infinite, incomprehensible fullness of purity that is incapable of being other than it is. Because God is holy, all his attributes are holy; that is, whatever we think of as belonging to God must be thought of as holy. It is for this purpose that he summons us in todays’ readings to imitate his holiness. This summon is a universal divine imperative, and it is the highpoint of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

In the Old Testament, there is a law which guided revenge. That law says that the injury inflicted by the avenger must not exceed the damage done by the aggressor. In other words, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth; a fracture for a fracture, and an insult for an insult (Leviticus 24:17-20). But Jesus is telling us that such a way of behaving does not represent the kingdom which he has come to establish. He asks us to avoid vengeance completely and offer no resistance to injury. He says that if anyone strikes us in the right cheek, we should turn the other cheek also; if anyone wants to take us to court because of our coat, we should offer the person our tunic also; and if anyone wants us to go one mile with them, we should go two miles with them (Matt. 5:39-42). The fact that Jesus is calling us to bear with our offenders does not mean that we should be passive in the face of evil. Rather, Jesus wants us to resist evil without becoming evil ourselves. Jesus wants us to break the vicious cycle of violence and vengeance. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, an eye for an eye will render the whole world blind.

The command to love our neighbor is a law of God (Leviticus 19:18). But Jesus is telling us that our love should not simply be for our neighbors, that is, our friends alone. Rather, for us to be the children of God, we must love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matt. 5:43-44). Jesus calls us to a higher standard, to a love that is not discriminatory and one that is higher than the virtues of the Scribes and Pharisees. We should love not because of, but in spite of. G. K. Chesterton once said that we are commanded to love our neighbors and enemies because they are generally the same persons. The best way to love our enemies is to pray for them because we cannot hate the ones we are genuinely praying for. Our attitude towards our enemies changes when we start praying for them.

In the second reading, St Paul tells us that the reason why we should imitate God in purity and holiness is because we are the temples of God and the Holy Spirit dwells within us. If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy (1 Corinthians 3:16-18). The demand to imitate the holiness of God by turning the other cheek and loving our enemies are difficult demands when looked at from purely human standpoint. But then, what is difficult for human beings becomes possible for those who give their lives to Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in our hearts. May the Holy Spirit that dwells within us empower us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.