Transformative Religion!

Sunday, February 23, 2025

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

1 Sam 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23; 1 Cor 15:45-49; Lk 6:27-38

The seventh Sunday in ordinary time invites us to reflect on the content of Christian morality and its qualitative uniqueness. 

Christian life is about ever striving to match what Jesus taught and practiced. If we can summarize the teachings of Jesus in a word that implies love in actions, then we arrive at ‘goodness’ as the answer. 

In other words, Christian morality is not about law-abiding or rule-observant rightness but about goodness that exceeds the letter of the law to reach its spirit. 

The North American Benedictine nun Joan Chittister defines a good person as ‘The good person is one who surprised you with virtue at a time when evil would have been understandable.’

The definition already implicates the element of choice over force. It transcends the realm of acceptability and conformity and prioritizes love, concern, and the capacity to be bothered as foundational for Christian morality. 

The three readings of the day enlighten us with different perspectives on goodness. 

In the first reading, if David had killed King Saul, he could not have been mistaken because Saul was his enemy who carefully picked some three thousand soldiers to hunt David down. David too had the impeccable opportunity to kill Saul. But he didn’t. What motivated him to shy away from such a rightful revenge? 

In the second reading, Jesus, the second Adam, could have well been like the first Adam. But Jesus contrasted himself from the first one and righted the wrongs of the first one. Although Jesus was from heaven, therefore not of this world, he did not want us to perish with our human nature; rather, he died on the cross to glorify our human existence. Thus, Jesus walked the extra mile to turn our ordinary existence into something that deserves extraordinary divine providence.

In the Gospel, Jesus comes up with several sayings to help us understand that Christian morality transcends worldly morality. ‘We need not show the other cheek; we need not give away our tunic; we need not love our enemies; we need not walk the extra mile.’ If Christians agree with these reasonable claims, what extra do we add to our Christian identity? What is the qualitative difference we demonstrate in our lives as Christians? In what way does it prove that we are the followers of the selfless Christ? 

The demands of rightness lag far behind what Jesus puts forward as Christian morality. The life of Christ shows that Christian goodness is oblivious to reason as it centralizes love. Therefore, love, not reason, and goodness, not rightness, determines Christian morality. 

There is an insightful anecdote to explain the theme. ‘Holy One,’ the disciple said, ‘how many people have you cured?’ ‘Oh, almost none,’ the Holy One said. ‘But that can’t be true,’ the disciple protested. ‘People come to you from everywhere.’ ‘Ah, that’s true,’ the Holy One said, ‘but most people don’t come to be cured. They come to feel better. If they really wanted to be cured, they would have to change.’ 

There is a difference between a therapeutic religion and a transformative religion. We don’t come to God to feel better but to alter our lives. Christianity is not a religion that helps us feel better. It stipulates change and transformation. 

Christian morality is goodness because, as shown by Jesus, it centralizes love.

Let us pray that we may become the practitioners of the superior morality which is of Christ. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar