22 February 2025 – 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) (Sunset Mass)

by Fr Fabian Dicom

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, there are moments in life when we stand at a crossroads. Someone has hurt us. Someone has humiliated us. Someone has taken something from us. And in that moment, we must decide – Do I strike back? Or do I withdraw?

Jesus in today’s Gospel presents us with a third way. One that is radical and transformative:-
Love your enemies.
Do good who hate you.
Bless those who curse you.
Pray for those who mistreat you.

Now my dear brothers and sisters, these words are not about being weak or passive. Jesus is calling us to respond with a strength that refuses to mirror the cycle of hatred and violence. Now one of the most misunderstood teachings of Jesus is if someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other. In Matthew’s Gospel, if someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer your left.

Now we need to understand the context of this. In Jesus’ time, a slap on the right cheek was a backhand blow like this. And it was meant to insult and degrade the person. Not a slap or a hit in a fight. Not an act of violence. It was to tell the person ‘You are below me‘. A Roman Officer or a Master would use this slap to remind the servant of their lowest status.

So now imagine. Imagine there is a soldier backhands a Jewish peasant, a Jewish farmer. What would be the expected response? Either the peasant cringes in submission or retaliates. But when he retaliates, he faces harsher punishment. But Jesus teaches a third way.

The peasant stands tall and offers the other cheek, the left cheek. Now the aggressor, the attacker, faces  dilemma. To strike him again when he’s like this (right cheek), and he turns this way (left cheek), he cannot do the backhand slap. To strike him again, he has to use a open palm or a fist. And this action is reserved for equals. He has to either do that (hitting with open palm) and admit that he is equal or walk away having lost the power to humiliate.

So by turning the other cheek, the oppressed person reclaims their dignity, forcing the oppressor to see them as equal. This is not submission. This is resistance. This is reclaiming dignity in the face of oppression. Jesus is showing how to disrupt the cycle of violence without becoming violent ourselves. Jesus calls for non-violent resistance that disrupts the cycle of oppression and revenge.

Perhaps some everyday acts of disrupting violence.

Perhaps some everyday meaning of how to turn the other cheek.

Perhaps at work, a colleague embarrasses you in a meeting. Instead of retaliating, you remain calm. Your composure exposes their rudeness and forces them to reconsider their actions.

Or on the road (you all know this). A driver cuts you off. So instead of honking, cursing or tailgating in retaliation (I think I’ll mark out all three for myself as well), you take a deep breath and let it go. You let it go. Your reaction prevents road rage and keeps the situation from escalating.

Or in a relationship of abuse, of domestic violence or sexual abuse. Rather than retaliating with violence or just being submissive and taking all the blows, a person can break the cycle. Turn the other cheek by seeking help and protection, whether through legal action, counseling or community support. This is the way of refusing to let the abusers control define them. Then again, these are not uncommon in our society.

Then Jesus takes it even further. If someone takes your cloak, give them your tunic as well. What does this mean?

Now according to Jewish law, and if you check Exodus 22:26-27, a cloak was essential. It cannot be taken overnight because it was a person’s only protection against the cold. The law does not allow you to take it away completely. But Jesus says this:
If they take your cloak, strip off your tunic as well.

What was He trying to say? 

Now picture this. A poor man, stripped of both cloak and tunic, stands naked in public. And Jewish culture, if you refer to Genesis 9:20-27, it tells us that it is not the naked person who is shamed but the one who caused the nakedness. So what Jesus is trying to say is now the oppressor will be exposed for all to see. Jesus is teaching us that injustice thrives in secrecy. By revealing it, we force the world to face the truth.

So for the first part about the cheek, I took us to a personal dimension of reflection. I want to move, even though you can find many examples where these things resonate with our lives, I want to take you to a social dimension of this cloak and tunic. And it is relevant for us as church.

Today we see entire communities stripped of their dignity. The Orang Asli whose lands are taken, whose way of life is erased, their voices are silenced. The refugee pushed into the shadows, denied basic rights, treated as less than human. The transgender community rejected, ridiculed, criminalised for simply existing. The cloak, their cloak has been taken. The cloak of security, identity and dignity forcefully stripped away by policies, by prejudice and power structures, by our politicians, by certain business people, powerful people and even enforcement agencies. And by us as well that refuse, we who refuse to see their humanity. Yet they must not remain silent. They need to strip the tunic.

How do they do that? To lay bare their sufferings through their stories, through their protests and their presence, forcing the world to confront an inconvenient truth.

If their cloak is taken, our cloak is also taken because they are brothers and sisters. We all are beloved sons and daughters of the Father. So if their cloak is taken, our cloak is taken as well. Then we too must give up their tunic. We have to give up our comfort, our privilege, our positions, our safe neutrality and we must stand alongside them, refusing to be complicit in their oppression. We must let our vulnerability become a prophetic sign, revealing the injustice that strips people of their dignity.

So to stand naked with them is to renounce the false security of power and embrace the radical solidarity of Christ. It means that as a church,
We do not hide behind titles.
We do not hide behind our wealth.
We do not hide behind our institutional comfort.
We do not hide behind our religiosity and performance.
But we step fully into the suffering of the marginalised just as Christ did.

And when the world ask, ‘Where was the church?‘ May the answer not be ‘In its buildings, the so-called holy buildings, preserving its status but rather in the detention centres, in the forest with the Orang Asli, in the homes of the forgotten ones. Standing side by side with the rejected.

Jesus also says, ‘Give to everyone who asks of you. Do not demand your property back and from the one who robs you.‘ This is absurd! Are we to allow thieves to rob us?

No. Jesus is teaching us to refuse to let material things define our worth. To refuse material things to define our worth. If someone takes from us, we show them that our true treasure is not in possessions but in God. He is calling us to a freedom that no thief, no oppressor, no empire can take away. For this, I leave this for your own reflection about how it makes sense to you. It will. It does.

And we go to the First Reading. We look at David. He had every right to kill Saul. Saul has hunted him, tried to destroy him and now in the moment of vulnerability, Saul is within his grasp. The world would have cheered. It reminds me of looking at some of the movies in Netflix and say ‘Go, kill him, man!’

No. The world would have cheered if David had taken revenge. Because the good beat the bad. But David refuses. Why? Because he sees beyond the moment. He refuses to let hatred define him. He knows that to strike Saul down would only continue the cycle of destruction. So do you see the power of Jesus’ teaching today? It is not about letting ourselves be crushed but about refusing to play the game of power in the first place.

And so my dear friends, we return to the crossroads. When we are hurt, when we are insulted, when we are wronged, what do we do?

The world teaches us two options, strike back, prove your strength and withdraw in fear, become a victim. But Jesus offers a third way.
~ Love courageously.
~ Resist creatively. And this is where the Holy Spirit gives us creative ways of doing this. This is the role of the Holy Spirit.
~ And give generously. That we are not tied to anything. That we are generous.
~ To those who hate you, respond in a way that exposes the emptiness of their hatred.
~ To those who insult you and others, stand in the truth of everbody’s dignity.
~To those who take from you, show that your joy is not found on things.

But this is not just about personal virtue. It is about standing together, ensuring that no one is left without dignity, without justice, without a voice. It is about being a church that stands with the vulnerable, not above them.

Paul in the Second Reading reminds us that we are no longer just of the earth, bound by fear and revenge. We are now of heaven, called to reflect Christ’s love. Christ, our Lord, our Master, our Saviour. To bear His image is to love as He loves, to give as He gives, to stand where He stands, with the least, the lost and the broken.

This is the freedom Jesus offers. This is how love conquers.

Which path will we choose? Because if we follow Jesus’ path, we might just discover the very heart of God.

Amen.

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