11 September 2025 – Thursday of the 23rd week of OT
Homily
Reading these recommendations of Jesus, we would almost want to say to him: ‘But surely you can't be serious! Do you really want us to act so naively? To let ourselves be crushed without defending ourselves and even go so far as to love those who hate us? Is that possible?
But Jesus, here, -- in what was in Matthew the Sermon on the Mount, but which, in Luke, is more like the Sermon in the Valley -- does not speak in images. He does not tell parables that need to be decoded. He very clearly sets out requirements that need no decoding, even if we know that it is not easy to live up to them.
Everything that Jesus recommends we do, in this Gospel: love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, wish well to those who curse us, turn the other cheek to those who strike us, not demand payment from those who steal from us, etc. is in reality nothing very extraordinary... since this is what God does for us every day. So let us be merciful, just as our heavenly Father is merciful.
Let us return for a moment to the story of David. After his astonishing victory over the giant Goliath, he was incorporated into the army of Israel, under the authority of King Saul, and, from battle to battle, he shone ever more brightly by his exploits, to the point of arousing Saul's fierce jealousy, who decided to eliminate him, and who went to war against him with three thousand men chosen from all over Israel. David, hunted down, with very few people to defend him, has an unexpected opportunity to kill Saul. He doesn't do it. Why? Because he has understood that Saul is greater than his actions. His actions, even the lowest and most vile, are not him. Not only, as a human being who commits these actions, is he greater than these; but above all he is the Lord's anointed.
The only way for us to be able to put into practice the recommendations of Jesus in this Gospel, is also to be fully aware that each person we meet, whatever their attitude towards us or society, is still a person created in the image of God, to whom God always offers His mercy – as He does to us – and a person whom He has chosen to continue His work in this world in one way or another.
It is not a question of being naive and not recognising as a crime what is a crime, as cowardice what is cowardice or as weakness what is weakness. This is not what Jesus means when he asks us not to judge. David, for example, does not excuse Saul's attitude, but leaves the judgement to Yahweh.
While we are allowed to recognise wrongdoing as wrong, and even have a duty to denounce injustice and to use every means to uphold the truth where lies prevail, the fact remains that we do not know what is in the hearts of other people and that God alone is the judge of this. Respect for each person -- created in the image of God and the object of his merciful love -- requires that we have the same attitude towards them as God does.
It's very simple! --- even if it's never easy.
Armand VEILLEUX