Last week was a pretty tough Gospel. It comes from Matthew 5:38-48, (http://www.usccb.org/nab/022011.shtml), where Jesus says to turn the other cheek and to love your enemy. He literally did this during the Passion, but I’d have a very hard time with that, especially if someone were to hurt me or a family member. So, does this mean we can’t defend ourselves, take someone to court, or pursue justice? Not at all.
I think it comes down to understanding what is meant by love, and making sure we don’t cross over into seeking revenge and taking things up a notch. It’s true we sometimes have to stand up for ourselves, but it’s also true that when someone lets go of hate and tries to bring mercy into the picture, this can bear fruit. I reflected on that this weekend with some help from the late Dr. Martin Luther King, who preached on the very same thing in 1957. Here’s the homily below, which draws on a few of his key points. The bottom line? Don’t be afraid to seek justice, but also remember that mercy can also work wonders – but that it’s a process and what we call “love” really needs to be properly understood.
God bless! – Fr. Paul
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Bruce Murakami is a man who, for three years, was on a quest for justice.
On November 16, 1998, there was a terrible car crash that took place in Saint Petersburg, Florida. A woman and her adopted daughter were hit by another vehicle as she moved through the intersection. The police investigation concluded that the accident was her fault, and not the fault of the driver of the other vehicle. This conclusion was not something Bruce could accept.
The accident consumed him. He quit his job, and pursued a three-year investigation into the accident. He researched it extensively, and hired an independent firm, and he found out that the accident was caused by the other driver, who was in fact drag racing down the street at almost 90 miles an hour. After thousands of dollars spent and three years, he now had the truth. Justice would be served.
The other driver, who was 19 at the time, Justin Cabezas, was charged with vehicular homicide. And it was shortly after he was charged that Bruce met with Justin privately. He asked him if he felt remorse for his actions. But, before the young man could speak, Bruce told him that he had forgiven him. Justin broke down in tears, and Bruce had a change of heart. He pleaded for mercy from the judge. Justin avoided jail time, but as part of his sentence, he was ordered to 2 years house arrest and community service by speaking at Safe Teen Driver presentations. That organization was started by Bruce as a way to help prevent accidents like the one that took the life of his wife and Chelsea, his adopted daughter.
As he looks back on what has happened, Bruce says he wanted someone to be held accountable, and so he hired the lawyer he saw on TV, recommended to him as “the nastiest, most aggressive criminal attorney in Tampa.” With the evidenced gained from the traffic engineering firm that he hired, he was able to get Justin charged. And before he saw him in court, Bruce said he always pictured him as “some spoiled punk kid.” In September of 2001, he saw him for the first time and says “Here was this clean-cut kid with a tie. I thought, this is the kid? He didn’t look like he’d do something so stupid.” The meeting between the two didn’t take place right away. Bruce went home in the early morning, and he says he thought of mercy as well as justice. “I turned on the TV, and the towers were burning,” he says. “It was September 11.”
As far as Justin, the truth is he isn’t a punk kid, but now has a normal life. He works part time as a veterinary technician and managed pet shops in suburban Tampa. As he looks on what happened, he says that “A split-second decision can reverberate through your entire life.” He did not suffer the loss that Bruce did, but his life was on hold. He was told he would not be charged after two years, and then was charged and it took over a year for him to be sentenced. He could have faced up to 30 years, but Bruce, his longtime pursuer, asked for the judge to withhold a finding of guilt and allow Justin to work with him in the program that would become Safe Teen Driver. As such, he got 2 years house arrest, 8 years probation and 300 hours community service.
He didn’t have to continue his service in the program, but he wanted to. Through the program, they’ve expanded to include chapters in New York and Florida, that gives education to young people, and it’s making a difference. Jeff Burton, a pastor at a church where the program was presented, says their story is powerful, to the point and very real. And Justin sees it too. He says that when he stands up in front of a group of teens and tells his story, “There’s this glimmer of hope. Your life feels so much better. It feels so strong, it’s hard to deny.”
Since the formation of the program, both have been featured in national media from Dateline to Good Morning America, and talked to countless teens. But if Bruce, who would have been within his rights to pursue justice to the fullest extent, had pleaded for a harsh sentence, it may very well have been handed down. But instead, many people have been helped because both now work together, and both of their lives are better as well.
What Bruce did is pretty commendable, but it’s also pretty tough. On the one hand, we should have justice and need it. If someone wrongs you, there should be criminal and civil penalties. But on the other hand, as Christians, we are told time and time again to love and forgive. Easy to talk about, a little less easy to put into practice. The question for me as I hear the readings this week, is how does one who professes a faith in Christ embrace justice without letting it turn into a quest for vengeance and how do we incorporate an attitude of love and mercy as a way of our call to holiness?
Leviticus, which our first reading comes from, is a step in the right direction. We are exhorted to not take revenge and cherish no grudge, and to love your neighbor as yourself, but Leviticus is also a very harsh book. It was written around the 6th century BC, and states that anyone who takes the life of another shall be put to death, and that anyone who injures another human being should be injured in the same way, “fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: the injury inflicted is the injury to be suffered.” Some Muslim countries embrace that exact kind of justice, but upon first hearing, our reaction could easily be the same. The code of Leviticus is meant to give order to society at the time, so that more vengeance, like that of a mob boss trying to make a statement who goes after other people, doesn’t happen, so it’s in essence ordering restraint – only hurt in return as you have been hurt. But Leviticus also contains mercy, as we hear in how the reading ends with the point made on loving our neighbor. In fact, the chapter goes on to say not just to love our own relatives and friends, but later on in chapter 19, it is stated “when an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress him” but rather “you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” So, we’ve got loving the people we know, or even strangers. But there is nothing in there about enemies. When Jesus comes into the picture six centuries down the road, he says rather than requiring compensation, overwhelm the wrongdoer with generosity, and give the same justice to your enemy as you do to your neighbor. And then Jesus speaks of turning the other cheek. It’s very counter cultural, both at the time he was speaking it and today. More than likely, our instinct might be to revert back to the pre-Leviticus time, and use force to send a message. To quote Sean Connery as the Irish cop Jim Malone from “The Untouchables,” “You wanna get Capone? Here’s how you get him. He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue! That’s the Chicago way, and that’s how you get Capone!” It might work sometimes, and yes, one does have to sometimes stand up to a bully and even use physical force – even Ingrid Bergman as Sister Benedict had to teach Eddie to fight in “The Bells of Saint Mary’s” to defend himself. But maybe there’s a better way.
I like “The Untouchables” as a movie, and that’s a great scene. But in another movie, “To Kill A Mockingbird,” based on the book, Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, a respected member of the town, is treated with contempt by some for defending a person of color. A white man comes up to him and spits in his face, and says he is disgusted with him. Peck doesn’t say a word. He simply wipes the spit away from his cheek, and says nothing and does nothing. But it’s clear which man has lost his dignity in the scene. In this sense, Atticus Finch lives out Jesus words to “do not resist evil,” as Jesus teaches a non-resistance to evil in the sense of avoiding physical violence or damages. Jesus, too, is silent when mocked by Herod; and when He is struck by His accusers, He simply says “If I have done any wrong, tell me what it is. If not, why do you strike me?” And after Jesus says, and later does literally, turn the other cheek, He exhorts the people to love your enemy. However, I have a pretty hard time feeling much love for people like Bin Laden or those who want to bring harm to my country. But “love” as it’s meant in the Gospel and “love” as we may use it today can mean different things.
In the Gospel, “to love” means to “wish the wellbeing of.” It’s a unilateral and unconditional desire to wish the wellbeing of another person. It doesn’t mean being in love with them, or having even warm feelings for them or even liking them – but rather doing things such as praying that they might change for our sake and for the sake of other people. Also, when one takes the non-violent approach towards an enemy, it can make sense too. Atticus was dignified at the end of the film, walking out of the courtroom as all the persons of color stood up, and when one doesn’t seek revenge, they come out looking much more heroic and win more hearts. If hate is all that is given back to an enemy, it reduces someone to the level of the person that wronged them. Love and forgiveness of an enemy are in fact possible, and I think there are some practical steps we can take to achieving them.
For help, I turned to a sermon given by Dr. Martin Luther King, who once preached to his congregation on this topic and same Gospel, and he suggests doing a few things. One is taking a hard look at your enemy, and remembering that there may be some good there. He said “every time you begin to hate that person and think of hating that person, realize that there is some good and look at those good points which will over-balance the bad points.” For Bruce, seeing the young man who made a bad decision for the first time and then thinking it over made him realize that Justin may have some good in him, which he found and then put into work by helping teens. For us, more often the enemy may be better stated as the people in life we can’t stand; the annoying boss, the bully at school or work, or even someone in the family. It could be that your boss drives you crazy, but maybe if you look hard enough you might be able to see some good; or that you’re focused on a rift you’ve had with a loved one, but maybe if you think back to the past, you can remember better times and their good qualities that are still there. If you think about the words of Saint Paul in our second reading, “do you not know that you are the Temple of God,” there’s no asterisk there next to “you.” God’s love is equally given to all, and that can be hard to grasp. It could be that over time, someone can change; it just might take kindness, love and mercy to sear through the muck of meanness that we might see on the surface.
Second, as I said, taking “the Chicago way” approach often doesn’t work, but only causes a temporary fix. Resentment, anger and hate can eat away at someone, and if you think you can resolve the situation by giving hate to someone, we ourselves become the victim. It spirals out of control. Dr. King used the example of driving with his brother on a night when many rude people were on the road who refused to turn off their high beams. His brother said the next person who did that he was going to make sure his high beams were on too, but Martin told him to not do that, as there’d be too much light on the highway, and it would end up in mutual destruction for all, and that someone has to have sense on the highway. When we calm down, we can put some sense on the highway of life. Dr. King points out that “there will come a time, in many instances, when the person who hates you the most, the person who has misused you most, the person who has gossiped about you most, the person who has spread false rumors about you most, there will come a time when you will have an opportunity to defeat that person. It might be in terms of recommendation for a job; it might be in terms of helping that person to make some move in life. That’s the time you must do it. That is the meaning of love. In the final analysis, love is not this sentimental something that we talk about. It’s not merely an emotional something. Love is creative, understanding goodwill for all men.” There is some truth to that statement “kill them with kindness,” because over time, you can help kill bad qualities in someone in how we take the higher road rather than fight fire with fire.
And finally, people can be transformed. Last week, when I spoke about Lincoln, I mentioned how both he and Ben Franklin changed as life went on with respect to their views on slavery. Interestingly though, Lincoln himself believed that people could change as well. In his sermon on this Gospel, Dr. King picks up on how Lincoln, when running for office, just like any candidate today, had to deal with negative campaigning. Edwin Stanton was the man’s name, who had many negative things to say about Lincoln during the campaign. After Lincoln is elected, Stanton is picked by Lincoln to serve as Secretary of War. His shocked advisors ask him if he’s aware of what Stanton has said about him, and Lincoln responds: “Oh yes, I know about it; I read about it; I’ve heard him myself. But after looking over the country, I find that he is the best man for the job.” And indeed, he was; he helped guide the North to victory and even changed his political views, becoming a Republican. In Dr. King’s words, “If Abraham Lincoln had hated Stanton, if Abraham Lincoln had answered everything Stanton said, Abraham would have not transformed and redeemed Stanton. Stanton would have gone to his grave hating Lincoln, and Lincoln would have gone to his grave hating Stanton. But through the power of love Abraham Lincoln was able to redeem Stanton.” Stanton went on to be instrumental in helping the Union Army to victory, but it took Lincoln to look past a political opponent and see the good qualities that were there, and how he served in Lincoln’s cabinet is a testament to how Stanton changed from someone focused on making sure Lincoln wasn’t elected to someone who was focused on the same thing Lincoln was: saving the nation.
By following these difficult words of our Lord, we have the power to make such a difference in ourselves and in others. The sad truth is so often, it never gets to that point, as it’s almost instinctual to get back at those who wrong us any way we can. Sometimes you do need to stand up to a bully, and sometimes violence may be needed in war or self-defense. We shouldn’t delude ourselves and think that saying an extra “Hail Mary” for Muslim radicals will instantly change them into welcoming a Catholic church into their neighborhood in the name of tolerance. And we also shouldn’t ever think mercy needs to cancel out justice; indeed justice, giving someone their due, comes before mercy, which goes above and beyond. But my hope is that when we hear this challenging Gospel, we don’t look at it as some pie in the sky thing that is unattainable, because Jesus does not ask us to do the impossible. Rather He invites us to open our eyes and see the best way that we can relate to the people around us.
On a fall day in 1998, a tragic situation happened on a road in Saint Petersburg, and it took 3 years for justice to be served. Mr. Murakami would have been well within his rights to ask for jail time for Justin, and done nothing sinful, for even when he was pursuing him, he was not consumed by hate, but by a hunger for justice. But sometimes when we open our hearts and see someone’s potential as God sees them and past the wrong that they have done or how they may be acting at the moment, something incredible can happen: multiple lives can be changed for the better. Turning your cheek and loving your enemy sound almost impossible to do, but doing so doesn’t negate the need and right for justice. But the even greater need in the world is the need to see what true love looks like in action, and so often our actions to one another, especially to the unpleasant people who are a part of our lives, can do so much to change the world for the better. People looked to the cross and saw a failure; people also looked to the cross and mocked Jesus, who had the power to come down and fulfill the sneers of His enemies, proving who He was. But instead, He asked for forgiveness for those who had brought the crucifixion about, and gave up His Spirit, and in so doing revealed something so powerful that it changed the world: that our God is love. Through our actions with our friends, strangers, and even enemies, giving both justice and mercy and seeing them with the eyes of Christ, we can reveal that truth too and help them to see it.
