Fr. Alan's homily for Sunday February 18th 2007

Quinquagesima, the Sunday before Lent

Jesus' order to "Turn the other cheek" is often quoted to show how unrealistic or otherworldly people think Christian teaching is. Even good Christians think to themselves "That's all very well, but in reality .."

Of course we also think that the "sinners" Jesus speaks of are somehow not ourselves. We think that the Lord is pointing somewhere "over there," or to "other people." In fact, he is subjecting our world, our standards, to the scrutiny of God's truth. We are the "sinners."

"Sin" is our default state and the default state of our world. For "Sin" is humankind having declared independence from God.

In speaking about what "sinners" do, Jesus is talking about the way we ourselves are usually inclined to behave. Moreover, he is contrasting the way fallen humanity goes about things with the way God goes about things.

So it's not just "turn the other cheek" any old how. It all starts with God. It is God the Father who has "turned the other cheek" already. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.

That's what Jesus means by the words be compassionate as your Father is compassionate. Such compassion is indeed otherworldly, but not in the sense of ridiculous. It is otherworldly in the sense that he himself, though fully part of this world, being the "Only Son," the Word made Flesh, is not "of this world." His focus is God's compassion, not our poor attempts at compassion.

In this world such behaviour will be unrewarded and we will be everlastingly taken advantage of. In the reign of God, however, it will be different, and it is God's reign, or kingdom, that Jesus is talking about. You will have a great reward and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.

God, says Saint Augustine, does not look at what we deserve, but at his own absolute goodness. But we cannot just ignore what Jesus says because we may see it as otherworldly. We are the "sinners." We should be asking whether in fact we are seeing things right.

We think we can see clearly. But we can't. Our ancestors Adam and Eve declared independence from God. Their eyes were opened, but all they saw was their nakedness, their mortality, in other words. Their spiritual sight was clouded at the same time. As they were, so are we. Because of our fallen nature cannot see the real world, God's world, clearly.

God does not look on what we deserve, but on his own goodness. That is profound. We are inclined to be obsessed with ourselves, our well-being, our advantage, our self-fulfilment, our comfort. This is so because for those who have declared independence from God there is nothing beside ourselves and beyond our immediate surroundings to be concerned with. We are shut in on ourselves.

But what God has done for us by giving us his beloved Son is to free us from that cycle of self-regard which leads ultimately to despair. Baptism is the point at which it becomes possible to see outside ourselves and focus, as God focuses, on divine compassion: be compassionate as your Father is compassionate.

That is why Christian spirituality and ethics is sacramental, originating in the pouring of water and the invocation of the Father, Son and Spirit. That is why Christian spirituality and ethics is transcendent, going out always in self-gift to the other, to neighbour, to the needy, in compassion which comes from God.

This coming Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, the holy season of Lent begins. Lent draws together all the threads that I have outlined here. It asks us to remember that we are a baptised people, and that everything flows from the Font. It asks us to engage with that spirituality and ethic of self transcendence. In simple language, it is to place love and charity to others above love and charity to ourselves.

Prayer, fasting and the works of charity are the means. God's eternal Easter is the goal.