Turn The Other Cheek

[00:00:09]Brothers and sisters, Jesus continues here to call us to to call us to for a radical interior transformation of our heart through the uh sermon of the of the on the mount.

[00:00:23]And and actually this passage the one we just read the gospel is one of the most misunderstood actually fragments of of the scripture.

[00:00:34]Often we might assume that Jesus calls us to be passive in terms of defending our principles, in terms of defending the truth.

[00:00:46]Especially in that in that in that sentence when someone strikes you on the on your right cheek, turn the other one as well.

[00:00:55]And we need to uh read this this sentence um with the with John 18 when Jesus was struck by the guard of the high priest and he responded to that, "If you if I have I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong, but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?"

[00:01:22]So Jesus did not remain silent for for injustice done to him. He stood up against the high priest.

[00:01:32]And at the same time uh as we know, Jesus is not calling for revenge by any means neither.

[00:01:41]He's not calling to fight back like other people are our enemies.

[00:01:47]But he is in favor of defending ourselves if we do something good.

[00:01:55]So we don't have to accept bad things that others impose on us.

[00:02:02]Same time, we cannot remain indifferent in terms of our faith. Quite opposite, we are actually called to quite opposite. We are called to give witness to that same faith.

[00:02:14]And of course, this witness requires courage, strength, and wisdom.

[00:02:19]There are moments that we cannot keep standing silent, even though that would be more convenient. It would be just easier to be silent about certain matters.

[00:02:32]We have to actually defend those things.

[00:02:34]So turning the other cheek is an expression of contradiction to the evil.

[00:02:41]It's the expression of the contradiction to the world. And I think that through our participation in the mass today, is that contradiction to what the world teaches, what the world promotes.

[00:02:57]So brothers and sisters, I think that through this mass we are getting stronger in that contradiction, in that testimony. We are inspired to do that, to be the contradiction to the evil.

[00:03:10]Amen.