Tuesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s Gospel is a continuation of the passage from yesterday wherein Jesus calls us to move beyond concepts of justice that are merely transactional. As briefly discussed in yesterday’s reflection, the divine justice that Jesus advocates for always entails the restoration of right relationship.
In the passage today, Jesus remarks that even the pagans and other non-Christians return good for good and evil for evil. There is nothing impressive or striking or surprising about such practices. It is a natural human impulse to want to behave kindly to those who are good to us and to be vengeful towards those who have done us harm, whether real or imagined.
Returning evil for evil, however, can never result in real reconciliation. It simply creates more hurt that will perpetuate the cycle of evil. Through the lens of God, each person in our lives (however difficult we might perceive them to be) exists as an individual masterpiece of the Creator. We are always called to desire their highest good and to seek to be in right relationship with them. In this way, our care and concern for those in our lives will begin to mirror the type of care that God has for each one of us individually.