The Vow of Non-violence (7th Sunday Ordinary A)

Edsa Revolution: Love vs. Military Force

I made a private vow several years ago when I was completing my graduate studies at Loyola School of Theology. I made a vow of active non-violence inspired by today’s gospel  reading (Mt 5:38-48) and by the witnesses in modern history, like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., to its transformative power in our personal and social lives.  After years of conscious and, sometimes, unconscious living out of this private vow, I believe it has changed me for the better. I believe I have become kinder in my words and thoughts, gentler in my ways and approaches, more positive and hopeful in my outlook amid discouraging circumstances, and more peaceful in my disposition in the midst of continuing turmoil in the external world.  This is such good news; so I am extending with joy at the end of this reflection the invitation to anyone touched by the Spirit to make the same private vow. Wink.

Today’s gospel reading has usually been viewed by many as the most difficult invitation of our Lord to his disciples as He enjoins them to be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect. Indeed, this invitation is not easy as discipleship is not.  But this does not mean that it is not doable. We just need to start somewhere and grow, even gradually, from there.  This invitation to perfection is all about the vocation to love as God loves and to unleash the gentle power of love that we may overcome violence and transform the world into God’s kingdom.  Let us focus on two significant injunctions of our Lord in today’s gospel which is actually a part of the Sermon on the Mount: First is the injunction to turn the other cheek and, second, to love one’s enemies.

Turning the Other Cheek.  The Lord pronounces in today’s gospel reading this disconcerting precept: “When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.” What?! Isn’t this insane? Well, our human nature would have us striking back to get even.  But again, Jesus invites us to be like the loving Father who does not retaliate violence with violence.  God conquers our rebellious hearts with love.

An interesting commentary on this passage is illuminating: When one strikes you on your right cheek, he uses the back of his hand to hit you. When you offer the other cheek, he has to use his open palm. But the palm has always represented one’s person; that is why we make an oath with it or welcome someone with a warm handshake and when we give, we do it with our open palm. Hence, the other cannot use his open palm to hit you without demeaning his own dignity as a person.  

Therefore, to offer the other cheek is not being passive to violence.  It is an active decision not to retaliate and, furthermore, it is a peaceful, gentle, and loving way of reminding the other to value the integrity and dignity of his own person and hence to stop the cycle of violence.  To strike back satisfies our thirst for justice; but to offer the other cheek is to exercise a far superior principle of Christian ethics—love.  Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Loving the Enemies.  “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust” (Mt. 5: 44-45).  Jesus does not speak here of the romantic and sentimental type of love that is always accompanied by “kilig” as one feels in the presence of an irresistible funny valentine.  Love here is not about feeling good towards one’s enemies. It is, instead, in its fundamental essence, an act of the will. Love is willing whatever is good for the other. While we usually do not feel good towards our enemies, we can still will what is good for them.  We can pray and bless them for instance as Jesus explicitly taught by his words and example: “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34).

The commitment to love our enemies is an active non-violent stance.  When the world tends to resort to the use of brute force in order to eliminate the enemies, the followers of Christ uses the superior but gentle power of love to conquer the hearts of the enemies.  Force and violence may destroy the enemies. But Christian love restores the goodness of the enemies and thus turns them into friends. Violence is destructive; love is restorative like the love of the heavenly Father who wills to restore everything destroyed by sin. Again, it is to such loving attribute of the Father that Jesus invites us towards perfection—be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Yes, this is no mean feat.  But with God’s grace, we can follow with joy what the Lord wishes us to do and to become.  As with any daunting journey we take in life, we need to start somewhere with the first step. We can make a private vow of non-violence intending to learn and to live each day by the precepts of our Lord on turning the other cheek and loving the enemies.

Personal Vow of Non-violence:  Recognizing the violence in my own heart and confiding in God's goodness and mercy, I MAKE A VOW (FOR ONE YEAR which may be renewed every year) TO PRACTICE THE NON-VIOLENCE OF CHRIST AS HE TAUGHT IT TO US IN THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT.  Before God the Creator and the Spirit who sanctifies, I promise to witness by my life to the love of Christ and especially: to live peace and be an artisan of peace in my daily life, to accept suffering rather than inflict it, to refuse to respond to provocation and violence, to persevere in non-violence in words and in thoughts, to live conscientiously and simply in order not to wrong anyone, to work in a non-violent manner to suppress causes of violence within me and in the world.  Amen.