Tags
anger, beatitudes, blessedness, dignity, drops of water, eye for an eye, happiness, Holly Near, human life, Matthew, mosaic law, Pope John Paul II, reform, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, violence
Chapter 5 of Matthew’s gospel is very challenging. Most of us know – or at least know of – the Beatitudes in which Jesus tells of the happiness (blessedness) of those who practice and/or endure justice and meekness and long-suffering, etc.(MT 5:38-42). The chapter doesn’t stop there, however. As Jesus lays out a new way of living – the fulfillment and next step in the evolution of the Mosaic Law, perhaps, he speaks of letting our light shine for the good of the world and then there is that most uncomfortable teaching that goes beyond anything his listeners could have expected. (MT 5:38-42) “You have heard that it 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.”
Interestingly, what caught my eye this morning when I first opened the USCCB (Catholic bishops) website was the topic of capital punishment. It is one of the tenets of Catholicism that I applaud wholeheartedly. This was the explanatory paragraph that I read:
The dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform. (Pope Saint John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 1995)
As we watch the frequent news reports of horrific violence in our country and around the world, these are hard sayings to accept. Reacting to violence with violence, however, is never a solution. I feel led today to examine my own heart, seeking to root out any vestiges of violence – bursts of anger and even thoughts of “tit-for-tat” – that might add to the negative energy in the world. Offering what I find as an antidote to my own failures in conscious loving might become my strength when the next challenge to my ego comes along. I’m reminded of Holly Near’s song lyrics from long ago that asked, “Can we be like drops of water falling on the stone, splashing, breaking, dispersing in air, weaker than the stone by far but be aware that, as time goes by, the rock will wear away.”
May it be so in us!
The Sophia Center for Spirituality 
It would be good for people who categorically oppose capital punishment to talk at depth to the families of victims after some time has passed about the impact of the event on their (affected) families. For the advocate, the perpetrator is so often seen as the victim, yet the painful effect of the event on the family’s children, the people who tried to prevent the event, etc. continues for years. It’s far from simple. Some offenders cannot repent, will not repent, yet are released into the general public. It is a terrible sacrifice for victim families to renounce capital punishment when they have needed to heal both themselves and each other, often on a day-by-day basis, of the pain of these tragedies. Few, if any, heal.
Despite the thoughts of some theorists, from the victim family’s viewpoint, it is rarely a matter of revenge – it is far more often a relief from the pain of the injustice – your loved one is gone and her murderer will be walking the streets, often in your neighborhood. Yes, that happens.