The priest's lectio Carmine Miccoli: Matthew 5.38-48 (Sunday VII / A - February 20, 2011) Purgatory Church - Lanciano (CH)
LECTIO DIVINE
"... be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Cf. Mt 5:48)
Canto (optional), selected by the community.
After an appropriate introduction, you can invoke the Holy Spirit with the canon Veni Sancte Spiritus or
Come, Creator Spirit (Taize), or other similar prayer, like the following.
P.: O Father, we thank you because we have gathered here before you to let us hear your word
: in it thou reveal to us your love and make us know what you will. Fa '
silence us in any other item that is not yours and why we do not find in the sentence
your word, read it, but not received, meditated upon, but not loved, prayed, but not kept,
contemplated, but unrealized, send your Holy Spirit to open our minds and
to heal our hearts. Only then our meeting will be renewed by your word -
chin covenant and communion with you and the Son and the Holy Spirit, God blessed for ever and ever
. A. Amen.
Canto (optional): Alleluia (Taize).
L.: listen to the Word of God from the story of the evangelist Matthew (5.38 to 48;
trad. CEI 2008).
[At that time, Jesus told his disciples:] "38 You have heard that it was said: Eye for
eye and a tooth for a tooth. 39 But I say to you resist not evil: but if one gives
a slap on the right cheek, you turn to him the other also, 40 and those who want to take you
court and take your tunic, let him have your coat. 41 And whosoever shall compel thee to
accompany him for a mile, go with him to let two. From 42 'to whoever asks, and who want to borrow
not turn your back. 43 You have heard that it was said, 'Love your
neighbor and hate your enemy. 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies and pray for
those who persecute you, 45 that ye may be sons of your Father in heaven;
he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. 46 Indeed,
if you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even the publicans
? 47 And if you greet your brethren only, what are you doing than others?
Do not even pagans? 48 You, therefore, be perfect as perfect is
your heavenly Father. "
follows meditation of the Word given by the guide of the celebration, after a personal moment of silence for
lectio, continue with the share on the common word heard. At the end, each of these
may propose an intention of prayer, for each, the congregation sings or responds with a cheer.
It concludes with the Our Father ... [and the final blessing].
Notes exegesis for understanding the text
The passage of the Gospel we read that continues the proclamation of the six antintesi
(5.17 to 6.1 Mt) at the base of the "Law" of the Gospel preached in the new "speech
of the mountain, which we have already considered in previous meetings, following
the liturgical pattern, we analyze the last two hours antithesis.
The fifth antithesis which begins the song of today's Gospel quotes a text
now entered the popular wisdom, using it in the worst way, "
eye for an eye and tooth for tooth" (Mt 5.38, cf. Ex 21.24; Lev 24.20; Dt 19:21), the standard is better known as
"law of retaliation." Today, with this phrase means that the damage suffered
you want to match the maximum severity, without mercy.
Who uses this language, in general, is considered fair, as if it were a despicable
, able to revenge, revenge is considered currency
current fair price for the injuries suffered. This attitude demonstrates
what we have just given way to the most bestial of our nature,
that shows the law of the jungle. But the "law of retaliation" was not so
was one of the most important laws of the seventeenth century. a. C. because, before the government
inordinate power of the force, it stated "by law"
the proportion of the damage and the penalty paid. The Mosaic law of retaliation is the oldest
biblica1 legislation, because it already exists in the Code of Hammurabi, "one of the most ancient collections
laws of humanity and attributed to the Babylonian king Hammurabi
or Hammu-Rapi (1792-1750 BC) 2. Before these laws legal
'written', the fno indiscriminate revenge was to achieve a disproportionate ratio
between harm and punishment, as the history of the biblical patriarchs, the "song of Lamech
" (cf. Gen 4.23 to 24 ). With Hammurabi and Moses after the first, the violence was reported
to an equal relationship and no longer left to the will of
single. The law of retaliation, therefore, is a step of civilization, legislation
change history and affect the habits of generations, for thousands of years.
seems heresy to say this today, but it is because when lays
matching blow for blow, poses a barrier to violence without measure:
a wound is a wound and not just a murder, if one receives a slap, not
can retaliate with a massacre. The law affirms the principle of retaliation ethical and psychological
that each of us works and lives within a network of priority and proportion -
Cf Es 1 21.23-25; cf. Lv 24.19 to 20, cf. Dt 19.18 to 21.
2 The collection consists of 282 sentences that anticipate the criminal codes of today.
was carved on a stele of diorite cm high about 204 (today is in the Louvre museum in Paris). You
almost certain that the law of retaliation, as well as other rules of the Torah, are inspired by
this collection, the oldest of five hundred years.
tion: nothing is left to the arbitrary, but with this rule and Defne the confni
establish the limits of social relations and criminal prosecution. The law in this sense is a bank
that characterizes the confni extremes. One can overcome the law, but
can not go beyond it. The legality before being a legal concept is
an attitude because it is the spiritual and psychological limits of consciousness and awareness
proportions. From this point of view, the notion of legality
to understand the importance of the other impassable because it expresses
balancing the demands, needs and rights. Who has not read or think over
it is a sick human being, without self-awareness and power
believe exist only in the use of arbitrary power which he lives as their size
statement. To comply with the law that creates the size of the spread
law, must respect themselves, but also accept and acknowledge
as part of a larger human reality, while maintaining their individuality and freedom of conscience
. Even in
salvation history we see the law of retaliation.
Exodus tells the story of slavery in Israel of God who intervenes with el'irruzione
strongly to deliver them from the rule of Pharaoh. It is the beginning of Israel's history:
the besieged people from Pharaoh, on the night of liberation, the promise was
which would apply the law of retaliation by God: Egypt
who persecuted and tried to kill firstborn of Israel (cf. Ex 1:22), will be affected in its
firstborn (cf. Ex 12.29 to 30) and Israel on the basis of the merits of the Fathers (cf. Wis 18.9) would have been included
in the book of the righteous. God does not respond to injustice
destroying Pharaoh's Egypt, but depriving him of the firstborn, thus restoring the proportions
initial strength. We have to wait to see Jesus upside to the relationship fno
supreme point where the innocent is charged violence that has generated and
not be held responsible for emptying the contents of strength and thought itself that drives the
choices and acts of violence. Vanifcare to death in the name of God, Jesus
no exception to his death, but the encounters and moments before he died
forgive his killers as the law of retaliation inversion required in the Torah.
The rationale of the 'eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth "(Exodus 21.24) replacing the
forgiveness unconditionally and without expecting anything in return, a love to lose:
" Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do "(Lk 23,24). In the name of
God can only forgive, that waiver is the balance between harm and punishment and the victims -
tima is charged not only damage but also because only then could the penalty be
won the imbalance created violence. In the name of God can only be killed by their own
murderers and while he identifcano as such, the victim
change their nature and transforms them into brothers and sisters (cf. Jn 18.11). Jesus brings
even further the need for community life: the root must be removed from the heart itself
of revenge, leading fno love of the enemy, in imitation of God if he could boast of Lamech
revenge seventy times seven, that is, without a vengeance
fne, the disciple of Jesus who accepts the Law of the Gospel, forgiveness comes "fno
seventy times seven" (Matt. 18:22), reversing the legal system of his time:
revenge gives way to forgiveness. The reference to the law of retaliation made
Jesus, however, lies in a broader context, because "justice" new
can not be exhausted in a series of rituals and moral rules, closed in themselves. It
the contrary, must express a new vision of the world because it reveals a new
face of God, free from the shackles in which religion, usually buries him. The fact
religion nourishes itself and "use" God to impose its rule
because it can flourish only if its adherents are submissive and servile,
incapable of thinking. Where there is freedom of religion because they do not lose infuenza
able to use force, anonymous rituals and unchanging and what is more, not
can do prevail superiority of the priestly caste who shamelessly
use God as a tool for its assertion of authority. But where there
faith reigns supreme freedom based on consciousness that fosters responsibility
and embodies the emotional relationship, nurtured by fducia and reciprocity. The "new
justice" of Jesus, in fact, requires faith, which can be expressed only in the context of
freedom and love. The Code of Hammurabi was formulated in an impersonal way,
while the commandment of YHWH, delivered to Moses, is direct and personal,
addressed to "you" with a command expressed this imperative. While
in the code of Hammurabi is the formula of an offense is detected and the corresponding penalty
, in the biblical commandment, God speaks to the conscience and
establishes a relationship of affection for the Law can not be just a bank
outside, inevitably based on fear, but should be indeed no inner spiritual
creating a vision of life and consequent behavior (
cf. Mk 7:20-23). Jesus does not linger on the Mosaic Law which had already made the limit
of proportion, but undermines the concept of minimum legal (or moral) "
to envisage a new order of justice, founded on the primacy of the relationship
in turn is rooted on two pillars: the person as such and God
as the guardian of the person. You play two reciprocity: the human being is
"image of God" (Gen 1:27) and then make the invisible visible of which guarantees
the original God affda human being and then rises to its nature. All
this is not resolved at the level of religion, but engages and develops only in
of faith, which is a movement of the heart and intelligence, a "place" relations
emotional and spiritual.
Jesus opposes the law of retaliation nonviolence, that the only instrument capable of
sconfggerla (cf. Mt 5:39). Jesus goes beyond the law itself and expresses a radical step
: Revenge must be eradicated from the heart of man. Jesus states
behavior, but outlines a policy that we codifcare
in modern terms this way: if you want to change another, change yourself against it. If
respond to violence with more violence, not only increases the violence.
If an act of violence respond to face the violence, calling for
name and accepting it as evil, and remain aware that it is
violence, but do not eat is inside the emptied of all its power to
death. The act of violence remains unanswered and that the author expects that they be
load, because without meaning to our. This is the logic of turning the other cheek or
to let off the mantle of being carried away or in court. The believer does not
suffer violence or abuse, but name them, recognize them and oppose
acting as a bank and absorbing all the violence that would otherwise not
quell'argine, risks of more damage. It is the only way to reject violence,
inadmissible for not being complicit in a perversion of the system.
violence as expressed not objective and can not be resolved without returning to the sender
which in turn must decide what to do and as a result
set.
In the sixth and final antithesis Jesus leaves intact the mosaic system, simply turn it over:
love of neighbor that Jews were the Italians and
hatred for the enemy, passing the love of the enemy that it is included in a report
of "relationship" with God Jesus' passage is complex: it starts with
quote a passage from Leviticus: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor" (Lev. 19:18) 3 to which tradition had added
"and hate your enemy "but was not provided by the Word of God
Rabbi Hillel (70 BC-10 AD) in a heathen who asked him what was the essence of Judaism
, replied:" What you ugly, not fixing them to other
"4. Rabbi Yosef Aqiba well (about 50-135 AD), one of the founding fathers of Judaism
after the destruction of Jerusalem, says that the commandment of love
the next of Leviticus "is a major principle of the Torah" (Midrash Sifra to Lv
19:18). For the love of neighbor means to visit the sick, consoling
rents, to give a dowry to fdanzate, etc.. In turn, Maimonides (1138-1204), the
largest medieval Jewish commentator, reads the command in Leviticus
a moral: "Tell him [the upcoming] with kind words and respect his property
"(Mishnah, Yadaìm Déot / Mani, 6.3). The reference to "your Father who is in
heaven" (Mt 5,45) is a reprise of the Prophet Malachi, which advocates a single human creature
because of one God (cf. Mal 2:10). What that meaning to our "neighbor / fellow
'and' foreign / alien 'are set by Jewish law
on the same floor, because human beings are tied together by the presence in each
of the' image of God" (Gen 1.27) which determines them as brothers and sisters, fgli s
3 There is debate whether the term "neighbor" refers only to the "compatriot"
jew or even wider for the 'stranger'. From the context of Leviticus 19 it seems that here you must give the interpretation
narrow, ie the first, because immediately after there is
commandment concerning the stranger, and you use the same words used for the next
(Lev 19.33 to 34). 4
Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat, 31a. The text is also included in the book of Tobit, "what
that you do not hate anyone" (Tb 4:15). The text is interesting because the Targum of Jonathan
translates Leviticus 19:18 in the words of Hillel. In the Gospel of Matthew the negative formula
of Hillel is formulated in a positive way, "Whatever ye would that men should do to
you, do ye even so to them: this is the law and the prophets "(Matthew 7:12), so that meaning to our
the teaching of Jesus is not entirely new, but in the process of the grafted
Jewish religious thought, which departs for the revolutionary force and demanding from the point
of moral witness and his unique "Son of Man."
the same Father. Jesus brings the comparison between those who say they believe and those who do not believe
only to emphasize that the believer has a justification or
or more in his belief is only a stopgap, a temporary dress depending on the circumstances
and convenienze5. Those who believe can not claim sun or rain
special and different from the sun and the rain of those who believe not. Here we find a hint
important to the secular nature of God's which is not a matter of
membership, but of availability within. Already Leviticus calls to those who believe to be borne by the
fno to intervene with authority: "openly criticizes
your neighbor" (Lev. 19:17). Failure to others and Defne "sin"
crushing, "so you do not responsible for the sin for him" (ibid., cf. Galatians 6:2; Phil. 2:3). The same
revenge is not only prohibited, but replaced with love and affection
elective.
Similar concepts will be developed by Jesus in Matthew's Gospel, in the 4th speech,
dedicated to the community (Mt 18), when the believer s'inviterà the Kingdom of God
bear any evil committed by his brother or his sister, using a psychological-pedagogical method
precise: first the discrete and personal intervention, then the
community Thesec particulars the decision of separation, everything affnché
Defne with both his name and no one 's Alibi immoral "not up to me ...
" or "is not the job My ... ", which translates nell'ignobile system
to mind their own living and let live (cf. Mt 18.15-18). Leviticus, the prophet,
Thesec particulars Jesus and the rabbis teach us instead of each one of us is responsible for
all others because each and fglio fglia of God are our flesh and blood, are
our credentials in front of salvation or our certifcate of damnation. Paul
codifca all this in the lapidary phrase: "Everything is yours. But you are
of Christ and Christ is God "(cf. 1 Cor 3.23). In the Church there can be no relations fnti,
motivated by personal success or by the emergence itself, since no one has called
for himself, but all receive a vocation as a function of a community,
a view of humanity where God puts us to live and work. I Corinthians is different -
Tivano to play who was more intelligent, more knowledgeable and laughing behind Paul
announcing the annihilation of a God who leaves his omnipotence crocifggere the
to equate humanity tired and sore. Paul does not fit
his gospel to vainglory of his listeners, but said that their higher
believe is the beginning of their downfall. because God confuse them
scattering like chaff before the wind. If we belong to Christ, we take its meaning to our
gospel as a criterion of our choices and our lives and if we do what is natural and instinctive
look at others as a visible expression of God's face and
revelation of his Person . Every man and woman are our Mount Sinai
by which God reveals his face and his heart. For this reason we can not have
5 The 'publicans' mentioned in Matthew 5.46 are those Jews who accepted to work for
Romans, having been awarded the contract for the collection of taxes, often indulging in prevarication and
fraud for which they were treated as pagans and sinners
(cf. Mt 9:9, Lk 5:27).
nor fear the future, which is in the hands of God and guidance of the Spirit, nor the other,
especially the poor, the marginalized, immigrants who are the authentic image of God
who are poor, marginalized and immigrant. If you really want to live our faith
, we take seriously the words of Jesus, today addressed to us, because we do not happen that happened
rich man in the story of Mark, who preferred to stay alone rather than
dive in 'humanity of God (Mk 10.21-22).
If we look at the text of Matthew and put it in parallel with that of similar Lk
see many differences that immediately catch the eye, you can see, one
overview, Matthew writes that for Jews, which quotes Exodus (cf. Ex 21.24) and
Leviticus (cf. Lk 24.20, 19.18), while Luke is more generic since its
audience is not familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures. From this we argue
that the Word of God must be adapted and embodied in every culture, without
identifcarsi with this special. Another difference between the two gospels
about the literary form: Mt uses the structure antithetical, which compares
the teaching of Jewish tradition (Oral Torah) with your ad liberating
of this form there is no trace in Luke, which in turn eliminates any reference to sinners
and Gentiles (cf. Mt 5.46 to 47) and merely talk about
sinners in general (cf. Lk 6:33-34). From the standpoint of the history of the text, it seems that the shape of Mt
is older than that of Luke, which clearly is an adaptation of an audience
that Jews considered 'pagan Gentiles. "
The conclusion of Matthew 5:48: "You, therefore, be perfect as your Father is perfect
your heaven "must be understood as the conclusion of all six antithesis
taken as a whole and not just the last. In it we find the theme of Jewish
"perfection", which sees the Jew as the fulfillment of all requirements
of Law, and observance of the 613 commandments that sum up the entire Torah. Mt
goes beyond this almost bureaucratic formalism and announces that perfection is
in the nature of God which is expressed in free, ie, in self-free and liberating
that believers are called to imitate. He uses the example of the act of God
send in the sun or rain does not discriminate between sinners and
right ", but bears the" fulfillment of the Law "and the overcoming of formalism
Faris (cf. Mt 5,17.20, 19.21). Luke however does not speak of an ideal of perfection, but merely
more moderately, to speak of goodness and mercy,
concepts more accessible to the greek world (cf. Lk 6:36).
The narrative of Matthew is very elaborate, and indeed also that of Lc:
sets the precept of the Torah is the Torah itself which draws both from traditional rabbinical
. In this teaching, marked by centuries of tradition (at least by sec.
III BC), Mt opposed to the commandment of the new justice, that is free, made
within Chapter 5 in the key of the triad as a crescendo:
'brother, evil enemy "(cf. Mt 5 22.34-35 and 39-41). In this triad
following two illustrative esemplifcazioni, derived from the Hebrew (refer to
collectors: Mt 5:46) and from the pagan world (refer to the Greeting: Mt 5.47). The two examples
have a capacity in excess, because they say that the moral
brought by Jesus is dropped from both the Jewish religion that is bent only on the people of
Israel and the peoples of flantropìa non-Jews who may be regarded
autosuffcienti. The proclamation of Jesus is free and it can access
Jews and Gentiles are now changed the criteria for life: religion or paganism
no longer determined by membership fsica geografca or a certain ethnicity, but
only by conscience and by the degree of involvement that it is capable of performing.
This course is an introduction to what will happen later when
defnitivamente will perform at the very moment of the death of God, the veil of the Temple
was torn in two from top to bottom, allowing the Roman centurion charged
defnizione for excellence and unclean, to contemplate the holiness of God "in
" holy of holies, "moved to the broken body of Jesus:" Truly this man was the Son of God
"(cf. Mk 15,38.39). Now is fulfilled the desire of defnitivamente
Moses asks YHWH to show his glory, but that he is not allowed
"You can not see my face" (cf. Ex 33,18.20). The new morality and
new justice will be delivered to Jews and Gentiles, and they can set up
the mountain of the Lord and receive the revelation of the person God's own
that was denied to Moses. This is the news of Jesus, no more division between believers and nonbelievers
, but only the project of a God who reveals himself and invites humanity without distinction
to climb the mountain as prophesied by Isaiah (cf. Is 2:3-4).
Despite the differences, the teachings of Matthew and Luke is the same: love and brought
required by Christ to be freed from the constraints 'natural' in which instinctively
says: family, social group, community religious communities of interest.
The horizon is the universality of God, where there are no categories, even that
the enemy. When these categories are deposited or Profle only, meaning to our
that human beings deny the presence of God and are working to interest
power that God is unaware of. Jesus brings a real revolution, because it sets
that love is the "place" of his own presence, far removed from other places and spaces
sacral, religious and family. Love has in itself a divine dimension
that receives sacred rites, or instruments. It is not the Church who love, but
is the love that gives birth to the Church and it becomes only a
dimension where love can be expressed and generate again because "God is Love" (cf. 1 Jn 4:8).
say that non-believers can not live a total love God is imprisoned in chains
of strict observance, deprive him of his nature and make it a good idol
market. God is not in the family, is not in the race, not fiddling
nationalism or pagan and Christian civilization, is not looking for roots, but he lives and hands -
party in the act of love because when you give, is consumed for
eternity (cf. Mt 5:48, Lk 6:36). No one who loves can is excluded from
of God, though apparently in the eyes of formal religion may appear
a love "wrong" because the God who is love is always greater than the heart of anyone
(cf. 1 Jn 4, 8, 3.20).
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