A few years ago a priest was giving a retreat to inmates in a federal prison in the south. One of the talks dealt with Jesus’ teaching about revenge. Jesus said, “You have heard that is was said, ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.” (Matt. 5:38-39) To illustrate Jesus’ point, the priest told the story of Jackie Robinson, the first black athlete to play in the major leagues. When Branch Rickey signed Jackie to a dodger contract in 1945, he told him, “You will have to take everything they dish out to you and never strike back.” Rickey was right. On the field, pitchers brushed Jackie back with blazing fastballs, and opposing fans and teams taunted him. Off the field, he was thrown out of hotels and restaurants where the rest of the team stayed and ate. Through it all, Jackie kept his cool. He turned the other cheek. And so did Branch Rickey, who was abused by people for signing Jackie.
The priest ended the story by asking the prisoners this question: “Where do you think black athletes would be today had Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey not turned the other cheek?” After the talk, a prisoner said to the priest, “that’s a nice story, father. But why didn’t you tell the whole story? Why didn’t you tell why Rickey and Robinson turned the other cheek? It wasn’t for love of God. It was for love of money. Rickey turned the other cheek because he had signed up all the best black athletes I the country and would make a fortune if Jackie succeeded. And Jackie turned the other cheek because if he succeeded, he would make a fortune too.” The priest thought to himself for a minute, “If the prisoner’s right, then he’s just shot my nice little story right out of the water.” But then the priest thought, “Hey! Wait a minute! If the prisoner’s right, then my story makes an even more important point.” It’s the same point Jesus makes in today’s gospel. Jesus says, “The children of this world are more prudent in delaying with their own generation than are the children of light.” Or to put it more simply, “Worldly people work harder for worldly rewards that last only a few years than Christians do for heavenly rewards that last forever.” In other words, if the prisoner was right, then Rickey and Robinson were more willing to turn the other cheek for the sake of money than you and I are willing to do it for the sake of God.
A few years ago a French communist newspaper addressed the following remarks to French Christians, “Your Gospel is a much more powerful weapon than is our Marxist philosophy of Life. Yet, we will defeat you in the long run…How can anyone believe in your Gospel if you refuse to live it out in our lives, if you refuse to sacrifice you time and your money for it? How can anyone believe in your Gospel if you refuse to dirty your hands for it?” The point of these remarks cuts deeply into each one of us. And the reason it does is because it’s true in so many, many cases. And that brings us back to the point Jesus makes in today’s gospel: Worldly people are more willing to sacrifice the worldly rewards than Christians are for heavenly rewards. Communists are more willing to sacrifice for the spread of Communism than Christians are for the spread of Christianity. This raises a question. Why are worldly people more willing to sacrifice for worldly rewards than Christians are for heavenly ones? Why are we ourselves more willing to sacrifice for worldly rewards than we are for heavenly ones? Why are we more willing to treat strangers kindly for financial gains than we are own family for heavenly gains? Of course, we can’t answer that question in a general way. There is no general answer to it. There is only a personal answer. We each must answer for ourselves.
And so the message of today’s gospel is this: Are we like the Christians whom Jesus talks about? Are we less willing to sacrifice for a heavenly reward than we are for a worldly reward? Are we less willing to sacrifice for the spread of the Gospel than we are for our own worldly advancement? If we are, then we will want to pray the following prayer with special devotion:
Lord, open our ears to your word even when we’d rather not listen to it,
because it challenges us more than we want to be challenged.
Lord, open our minds to your word even when we’d rather not think about it,
because it disturbs us more than we want to be disturbed.
Lord, help us put our word into practice even when we’d rather not act on it,
because it means changing what we’d rather not change.
Above all, Lord, help us realize that we never ask us to do anything that you won’t bless
us for beyond our wildest dreams. You are never outdone in generosity.
(Courtesy of Mark Link, Sunday Homily’s)