Not against, but beyond

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

THIS is about charity, the very essence of God. And as God’s image and likeness, we are supposed to also have this essence. It’s a charity that is not simply human and natural, but rather divine and supernatural. As such, it requires the very grace of God for us to have it.

But we have to understand that this charity that does not go against our human nature. It simply goes beyond it, purifying and elevating our human love to make it also divine.

This truth of our Christian faith is illustrated in that gospel episode where Christ spelled out how we have to love. “You have heard that it has been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” he said. “But I say to you not to resist evil: but if one strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him also the other; and if a man will contend with you in judgment, and take away your coat, let go your cloak also to him.” (Mt 5,38-40)

More than that, Christ also said, “And whosoever will force you one mile, go with him other two. Give to him that asks of you and from him who would borrow from you, turn not away.” (41-42)

It’s indeed a mind-blowing description of how our charity should be. We are asked not to retaliate from unregulated revenge while defending justice. We are directed toward patient endurance.

We are asked to train our heart to respond with mercy and self-giving, refusing to escalate when struck, giving more rather than grabbing back, being willing to endure inconvenience.

This is not, of course, about self-destruction for its own sake, but rather about self-restraint and mercy even while suffering injustice. That way, our response to injustice would not become another act of harm and would thereby end the cycle of counter-attacks.

We have to learn to overcome evil with good, a very intriguing part of Christian charity. Not only should we love our enemies, as Christ taught us, but we also need to drown evil with an abundance of good.

We have to try our best to erase whatever disbelief, doubt or skepticism we can have as we consider this teaching, since most likely, our first and spontaneous reaction to it would precisely be those conditions. We can ask, even if done only interiorly, “Is Christ really serious about this? Can this thing that Christ is telling us, possible, doable?”

When these reactions come to us, it is time to remind ourselves that we just have to follow our faith that definitely contains a lot of mysteries and things supernatural that we are not expected to understand fully. Like Our Lady and all the saints, we should just believe and do what we are told because it is Christ who said so, and because it is the Church that teaches us so.

That’s what faith is all about. By believing first, then we can start to understand things that are hard to explain or articulate in human terms. As they say, that’s how the ball bounces. We should not waste time trying to understand everything at once or at the beginning. Let’s be game enough to go through some kind of adventure that, no matter how the outcome would be, we know that God is in control of everything.

We should just beg for God’s grace.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com