Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, cycle A

Matthew 5:38 - 48

“Do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also… Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Nice sentiments, but could you ever find human beings who actually tried to carry out these commands of Jesus? As it turns out, you can.

At the time Jesus died on the Cross, the number of Christians in the world would probably be less than 50. Historians estimate that by 150 AD, there were about 40,000. By 200 AD, there were 218,000, and by 250 AD, 1.17 million. And all this was going on before Constantine, despite persecution, despite other economic and social pressures. There were competing religions as well; Roman and Greek paganism was given lip service, but Mithraism from Persia was attractive especially to members of the Roman army. Manicheism, a relative of Zoroastrianism, was popular among intellectuals, and for a time St.Augustine practiced this religion. And Judaism was growing as well; there was an active missionary effort in those days and Jesus even referred to it when he talked about the Pharisees crossing the ocean to make a single convert.

But the massive growth of Christianity was unique. And perhaps the major reason was that you could see how Christian communities behaved. They followed Jesus’ teachings. They took care of each other, and even their enemies. If you were a starving pagan, you knew you could get a meal from the Christians. If you were sick or in prison, Christians would be there doing what they could. This is all well documented in the writings of people of that time who weren’t Christian. Sometimes they looked down on Christians as weak, lacking in the virtues you would expect of good Romans. Other writers spoke favorably, but the fact remains that those early Christians were not like we are.

And of course there is the testimony of martyrdom. Christians embraced it, because they saw themselves following in the footsteps of Jesus. But they were martyred in other ways as well. If you were a Christian, you might spend a lot of time in jail. There were numerous jobs you couldn’t have. And yet people converted; more and more were added to the ranks of Christianity.

There really isn’t anything comparable in history. Islam was spread by the sword, and still is, in a way. Buddhist missionaries were welcomed by rulers who saw this faith as a way to unify their subjects. And we’ve seen nothing like the growth of Christianity.

And it’s interesting to note that when Christianity became the official faith of the Roman empire, the monastic movement attracted large numbers of men and women; and when the Europe of Saint Francis time was corrupt, the Franciscan movement grew very rapidly. And we see that over and over again; there is something wonderfully attractive about people who genuinely live the values that Jesus taught, and it is the only way real Christianity spreads.

But can we be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect? Jesus seems to think so, and he points to a characteristic of the Father that bears thinking about: “He makes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and the rain to fall on the just and unjust alike.” So why does the Father do that? He doesn’t condition his gifts on whether we are good or bad; he gives freely to all his creation out of sheer love. He expects nothing in return. He is pleased, if we can think of God as having moods, by whatever small token of love we can offer. He wants all his children, who he created in his own image and likeness, to live in perpetual joy with him. And if this is the way the Father is, it should be the way we are as well. Jesus is not expecting the impossible; when he calls us to repentance, he isn’t asking us to be sorry for our sins, precisely. He wants us to get rid of those attitudes that ask how far we can go without committing serious sin, those attitudes that are content as long as we can convince ourselves that we are better than someone else. Lovers never ask what the minimum requirement is to show the beloved that they are loved. In a way JEsus is asking us to put aside the ten commandments which put a floor under us, and turning our attention to the possibilities of how high we can go.

And I think Jesus knows that there will be a vast number of his followers who are trying to get by, who don’t give religion a lot of thought, who really aren’t changing much over the years. And they will be saved, we hope, because Jesus wants that. But every now and then a Benedict or a Francis or a Theresa will come along and live the Sermon on the Mount, and we will all be astounded and make a resolution to try a little harder. And the world will move a little closer to becoming the Kingdom of Heaven.