THE TEXT BELOW IS THE TRANSCRIPTION OF THE VIDEO COMMENTARY BY FR. FERNANDO ARMELLINI

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A good Sunday to all. 

In relationships with others, we expect reciprocity. So, instinctively, when we do something good for another person, we wait for a response, even if it’s just a nod or a smile. If we invest our love, we expect an exchange that keeps the accounts balanced between giving and receiving, which is our sense of justice. 

And this justice seems so normal that we have even projected it onto God. He grants us favors, fills us with goods, and naturally expects us to show our obedience and follow his commandments. That is, to make it an exchange. This is our justice. And this was the justice of the Pharisees. And we have heard Jesus say: ‘If your justice does not go beyond this justice—which is the justice of the Pharisees—you are outside the kingdom of heaven. They have not yet entered the kingdom of God.’ 

The danger is to remain in this world’s justice and practice it… which is already a very good thing, while being convinced that one is already a disciple of Christ, having accepted his proposal for a new world. Jesus wants to introduce us to the kingdom of God, which is very different from the logic of reciprocity and commercial exchange. Jesus invites us to embrace a new justice. 

What is the proposal he makes? The relationship with the other, whether a good or bad person, friend or enemy, sympathetic or unfriendly, does not interest him. The relationship with the other is not based on calculation but on complete and free gratuity. The disciple invests love without expecting a return or an advantage. This is not considered. Love, do good, and appreciate the other’s life, even if the other is an enemy. This comes from the new nature of being a son or a daughter of God. Just as the vine cannot but produce grapes, it cannot produce thorns… even if it wants to, because its nature leads it to grow grapes. 

The disciple loves because this is their new nature. In today’s Gospel text, Jesus indicates to all who want to belong to the new kingdom, to the kingdom of God, two other goals beyond which it is impossible to go. They are the maximum of the human. Let’s listen: “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Now I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one. Suppose anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand over your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow. 

“You have heard it said to your ancestors.” God has said: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” I think this is the most battered legal norm in the history of law. We quote it when we want someone to pay for evil done to us, saying: ‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,’ that’s how I get paid. But this rule entered the Torah as a wise provision, willed by God, to limit retaliation. In ancient societies, it was about maintaining order and restoring justice. When the one who had done something wrong was discovered, he received exemplary, cruel, and severe public punishment, and all who attended were cured in health so as not to make the same mistake. Revenge served as a deterrent but was a brutal way of maintaining order and doing justice. 

We have a well-known case in the Bible, that of Lamech, a descendant of Cain. One day, he calls his two women, Ada and Sila, and tells them: “I killed a man for bruising me, a young man for wounding me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech, 77 times” (Gen 4:23-24). And it is to stop these excesses that God established in the Torah: ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.’ That is, each one must pay for the guilt he has committed, not for the evil in the world for which he is not responsible. Jesus does not say it is a lousy norm because it is good. It is already a step forward regarding retaliation. 

But it remains within a logic that is still the justice of this world. It is not fully human. And Jesus wants to leap over the farthest horizon you cannot go beyond. “Now I tell you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.” It’s personal, not generic: ‘Don’t do it’. Pay attention; do not return to the lower level if you enter the new world. Do not get on the same level as your aggressor. Resist the temptation to use the same armaments and methods. If you do that, you go back to the old justice. You cannot compete with that person in evil. “When someone strikes you on your right cheek.” The instinctive reaction is to slap him back. But if you do that, you fall back into the mud, along with that person. 

And Jesus tells you not to degrade yourself, not to descend to that level. The disciple must remember that those who still belong to the ancient world will harm him, and he must be prepared to respond as a disciple, someone who no longer belongs to the logic of seeking revenge. To be clear, Jesus presents four examples of restoring justice to those who belong to the kingdom of God. 

The first example: “When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one as well.” If someone slaps you, it is usually on the left cheek. But if he slaps you on your right cheek, it is an insult. This was a severe outrage. In Israel, it was punished with an acceptable equivalent to a month’s work as a laborer. Jesus tells the disciples… not to be more demanding or less temperate in seeking compensation, but to ‘offer the other one too.’ ‘You turn the other cheek.’ 

Naturally, it is a paradoxical expression that should not be taken literally. Jesus protested when he was slapped in front of the high priest. What response characterizes what belongs to the kingdom of God? The person does not react. They are not seeking vindication; they do not return evil for evil, the slap, or the offense they have received. This would mean adding another evil to the list. 

We must pay attention: love does not always mean caressing. At times, challenging, firm positions are necessary when hardness is born of love, of the fact that one loves the other well. Accepting that the other person remains evil does him no good. It is necessary to bring that person out. And to get him out, caresses are not always enough. It can and should be hard. 

When one takes a challenging position, it is necessary to first ask what impulse it stems from, because, without realizing it, perhaps our position is not born of love for our brother or sister but of the desire to take revenge—the need to make the other person pay and to return the offense. 

In the words of Jesus, the optimistic tone is missing; that is, Jesus does not say, ‘Through your kindness and endurance, you will change the heart of your enemy… he will become a good person.’ The person might become better, but Jesus does not say so. You cannot behave otherwise because you are in the kingdom of God; that is, you let yourself be moved by the divine life within you. You are a child of God, and only the love that characterizes your Father in heaven should flow from you. You must act consistently and only out of love; when you take challenging positions, that must be born of the need to see your brother or sister happy. 

Second example: “If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand over your cloak as well.”In Israel, men and women wore two types of clothing. The tunic, with long or short sleeves, was worn over the naked body; the cloak was worn when it was cold and covered the poor at night. The cloak was so important that it could not be demanded. “If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, you shall return it to him before sunset; for this is his only covering; it is the cloak for his body. What will he sleep in?” (Ex 22:25-26). 

The cloak cannot be kept as a garment overnight. What is one to do? Jesus says: “If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand over your cloak as well.” He has already had to give up all his goods because he only has the robe over his naked body. What can one do? Show unconditional love and refuse to engage in litigation or contention. Even the cloak is the last thing you have left to yield. We see that Jesus practiced this in the letter; he remained completely naked on the cross. The Christian can and should seek justice, but if you can’t get it because the power is in the hands of the wicked and your only alternative is to harm the brother, you can do nothing and be ready to give even the cloak. Take it or leave it. To be or not to be a member of the kingdom of God. 

Third case: “Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go for two miles.” Here, the verb ‘angareuein’ is used and appears only twice in the New Testament. It means ‘to abuse’. An example is today’s text. Another is the case of Simon de Cyrene, whom the soldiers forced to carry Jesus’ cross. That was an abuse. It was common for Roman soldiers or any local landowner to abuse the poor peasants and force them to carry loads. This is the example of Simon de Cyrene, who was tired after coming from the field, and the soldiers abused him. Jesus says: “Should anyone press you into service for one mile….” 

Abuses were frequent. Many suggestions were offered for appropriate behavior in such cases. The revolutionaries advocated rebellion and recourse to violence. If a moment comes when you can attack him, it’s the best you can do. The Stoic Epictetus exhorted prudence and said: ‘If they ask for your donkey, do not react badly because otherwise, they will beat you up, and then they will also take your donkey.’ Jesus does not offer any rule of wisdom; he does not suggest a strategy to convert the aggressor, nor does he ensure that your behavior will have a useful result for the conversion of the wicked person in the short term. NO. 

He asks the disciple to live according to his nature as the son or daughter of God. ‘You can’t do calculations; you must keep your heart free from all resentment; you must refrain from any reaction not dictated by love.’ Julian the Apostate, great-grandson of Constantine, posed a mocking objection: ‘But what would happen in the world if Christians took this commandment seriously? The barbarians, the wicked, would always have the best part.’ It can happen. 

Celsius was even more explicit and harder. He said: ‘If you behave as Jesus of Nazareth says, power is left on earth in the hands of savages and people without law.’ From the earliest times, the objection has always been raised to what we might call ‘Christian pacifism.’ ‘Pacifism’ does not mean accepting everything. NO. 

It is what Jesus calls ‘Blessed are the peacebuilders’ = ‘eirene poioi’ = those who insist on building peace, refusing to resort to any action that could harm the brother or sister. Where violence exists, in any form, whether criminal, political, economic, military, or otherwise, participation in this violence is a sign that the kingdom of God is not yet present. The renunciation of violence is a sign of the presence of the kingdom of God, a sign that the new world has begun to exist. 

The fourth case Jesus presents illustrates the qualitative leap that occurs when one moves from the kingdom of this world, from its logic and justice to the new justice: “Give to the one who asks of you and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.” It is the fourth case: a person who, perhaps at an inopportune time, asks for a loan…. 

In Israel, if a person asked for a loan, it was not like what happens with us, where a loan is often an investment because interest is involved. In Israel, this was prohibited. In the Torah, interest is called ‘nester,’ which means a ‘bite’ you give in the neck to the one who is in need. He who requested a loan in Israel was a needy person. 

Jesus says, “Pay attention.” It’s not about earning interest you can get on a loan. NO. ‘Do not turn your back.’ Maybe someone comes to ask you for a loan, which could be for housing, a rental apartment, a job, a discount price, or, as often happens, without much discretion. Jesus tells his disciples, “Don’t pretend not to understand.” Do not look for excuses, do not invent nonexistent difficulties, and do not try to pass the problem on to others. If you can do something, do it, and that’s enough. 

And now, the last example of the leap of quality in the new justice is the kingdom of God. Let’s listen: 

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so 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. What reward will you receive if you love only those who love you? Do not tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect. 

“You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, ‘You will love your neighbor and hate your enemy.”Only the first part of this phrase, as quoted by Jesus, appears in the Bible; the second sentence does not appear in the Bible but reflects the spirituality of the time. Just think of what the monks of Qumran said, ‘You must love the children of light, and you must hate the children of darkness over which the vengeance of God is expected.'” 

Some psalms also contain difficult expressions—for example, when the psalmist says, “I hate your enemies, Lord, I hate them with relentless hatred.” This expression indicates the psalmist’s desire to maintain distance from those who do evil, but there is no text in the Bible where God says, “You must hate the enemy.” This is not in the Torah. 

Let’s now hear what quality jump Jesus wants us to make, based on the human justice that loves friends and hates enemies: “Now I say to you: Love your enemies.” The verb used here is important: ‘agapán’. It appears in classical Greek only a dozen times. It was not used, but he became the verb that characterizes the behavior of the disciple of Christ: the unconditional, gratuitous love that does not expect any retribution and that, like the love of God, reaches everyone, even the enemies who offend us. And do good selflessly, without worrying whether anyone realizes who did them a favor. 

In Greece, other verbs were used to indicate love, such as the verb ‘filein’ – the ‘feeling’ that is spontaneous love toward friends. Also, the verb ‘erún,’ the verb ‘eros,’ was the most used of all and indicated love in search of the beauty that is seen and appreciated. Also, ‘sturgeon’ was the love for parents. 

The love that characterizes the Christian is the ‘agapán’: the need to see the other happy and to put one’s life at the service of life, even the life of the enemy. The joy of seeing someone who is alive and happy. This is the love that Jesus asks of those who want to belong to the kingdom of God. It is a love that is not easy. Then Jesus gave a second commandment: pray. Only if you pray will you be able to always listen to the Spirit of Christ that is in us; that Spirit that has led him to surrender his life, to save nothing, not even a crumb of his life that had not been donated to anyone in need. 

If we want this Spirit to always be present in us, we must maintain a climate of prayer. It’s not about repeating formulas but about always staying in touch with the thoughts and feelings of the Father in heaven. The reason: “that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad (first the ‘bad’) and the good and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.” What does it mean to be children of your heavenly Father? The life the heavenly Father has given you must be manifested. And this life from the heavenly Father is unconditional love. He makes his sun rise on evil and good. 

How do we interpret this expression? I think we all believe that God is good to everyone. He does good to ‘Tom, Dick, and Harry’ who are bad, and he loves, blesses, and fills with good things those who are good. It’s not like that. The fact is that God makes the sun rise for me when I am good, and the sun also rises for me; that is, he loves me unconditionally even when I misbehave. We must internalize this because this is the ‘agapán’ of God; this is his love. And when we understand that this is his love, we, his sons and daughters, must let that ‘agapán’ go out of us to meet our brothers and sisters. 

A mother loves her son because he is her son; even when he misbehaves, she loves him because she distinguishes the bad action from the ‘son.’ The son is good; the action is condemned. God loves ‘like crazy’ because he is love. A woman was not a mother before, but when she becomes a mother, nature leads her to unconditionally love her son, even to the point of giving her life for him. It comes spontaneously and naturally. It comes from her mother nature. This unconditional love of the Christian, which belongs to the new world and the kingdom of God, comes from their new nature, that of being children of God. Then Jesus gives some examples: “For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same?” 

Even if they are good people, they are not yet children of God. If they greet their brothers and sisters, what is unusual about that? To welcome the brothers is to wish for “shalom,” peace, which means the accumulation of all goods. This is what we want for the brothers and sisters. But no. None of this is extraordinary. They are not yet children of God. You should wish ‘shalom’ to everyone, and wishing ‘shalom’ means being willing to give one’s life so that the other receives the accumulation of all goods, even if they are my enemy. This can only come from the Spirit of Christ. Since the beginning of the Church, attempts have been made to mitigate this commandment of the disciple’s new life. 

Think, for example, of Origen, a very famous biblical scholar from the early days of the Church. He mitigated this commandment, saying: “It is enough not to hate enemies.” But it’s not like that. It is not enough not to hate enemies. This is only a little above the justice of this world, not yet in the kingdom of God. It is not about not hating but about doing good. Make your life available to the enemy and forgive him. 

St. Ambrose also said that these commandments must be reserved for the perfect, but not the commandments below that one; all should observe these other commandments, but this commandment of ‘love even the enemies’ is only for the perfect. 

St. Augustine also said this is for the perfect; for others, it is enough to aspire to this form of love. Thomas Aquinas has a Latin expression that says, ‘Pertinet ad perfectionem caritatis.’ That is, it is not necessary for salvation but for perfection. Thus, Jesus’ commandment began to be limited, and the enemy at war was excluded from it. This has created a big problem. No. Let’s go back to what Jesus has said. 

Conclusion: “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Some interpret this recommendation, this order of Jesus, as the beginning of a path to someday arrive at the perfection of the heavenly Father. I don’t even start with this interpretation because I got discouraged initially. NO. 

TODAY, you must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Jesus is indicating that you are a son or daughter of God, a son or daughter of the Perfect One. Therefore, you must behave at all times as the heavenly Father. This is perfection. Beyond this, it is impossible to walk. 

I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week.