Friday, January 25, 2008

A Fool for Christ ...

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25 "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'
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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.
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If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well.
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Should anyone press you into service for one mile, 26 go with him for two miles.
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Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.
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27 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'
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But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you,
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that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
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For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors 28 do the same?
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And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? 29
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So be perfect, 30 just as your heavenly Father is perfect.

That's a hard teaching you know.

Sit and think about it for a while. I have been thinking about it lately.

It's easy to say that you are praying for your enemies. However, notice that praying is the last thing that Jesus asks of us. First and foremost he espouses movement. Doing. Showing with actions. Living it.

He is telling us to be saps, suckers, idiots ... fools. And to let the world think of us as such.

Just as with his teaching about the Eucharist, he doesn't call us back and say, "Oh, well, I didn't mean it literally." No, he lets that sit right where it is. As an order.

It isn't easy being a fool for Christ.

Who can really do such a thing? That's why the saints are ... well, saints ... and we aren't. We haven't learned to be foolish enough. We keep applying the world's reasoning and justification and common sense and practicality.

None of which has any mention at all in what Christ tells us, no, orders us to do.

I wish I were better at it. But, I'm not. The best I can do is to pick myself up every time I fall down and to try again. Which I guess is all that any of us can do.

It is easy to lose sight of this hard and sacrificial teaching in the midst of every day life. I guess that's why I have been thinking about it ... because life is not what we think it and I need to be reminded of the foolishness of God's call in the world.

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