Offer No Resistance

June 18, 2012

Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

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.  If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well.  Matthew 5:39-40

Piety

At dawn I bring my plea expectantly before you.  For you, O God, delight not in wickedness; no evil man remains with you; the arrogant may not stand in your sight.  Psalm 5:4

Study

Nowhere is the Good News more clear that  Jesus changes the content and intent of Mosaic Law and adds his own New Testament interpretation.

Offer no resistance to one who is evil.  This is not a curious Biblical expression or unusual theme from a Thoreau essay.  It foreshadows the "defense" strategy that Jesus utilizes on Good Friday against his accusers.  It also has found its way into may reform movements in our own lifetime.  Gandhi used these techniques in India to get political control from the occupying British forces.  Rev. Martin Luther King practiced this in the civil rights struggle.  Union shipyard workers practiced this in Gdansk, Poland -- a protest that began the decline of Communist domination of Eastern Europe.  Nelson Mandela rose to lead South Africa in front of a civil movement founded on such resistance -- and followed that up not with retribution but with a Truth and Reconciliation Commission .  Civil resistance tactics also were used in the Arab Spring, especially in the protests in Egypt's Tahrir Square with strikes, demonstrations, marches and rallies now supplemented by social media to aid organization.   

Maybe this was among the things Jesus taught when people sat around astounded by His teaching.

The modern Church's teaching on this subject also is as abundantly clear.  From the Catechism of the Catholic Church we also rely upon these principles:

• ·         2242 The citizen is obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order, to the fundamental rights of persons or the teachings of the Gospel. Refusing obedience to civil authorities, when their demands are contrary to those of an upright conscience, finds its justification in the distinction between serving God and serving the political community. "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."48 "We must obey God rather than men":49
• ·         When citizens are under the oppression of a public authority which oversteps its competence, they should still not refuse to give or to do what is objectively demanded of them by the common good; but it is legitimate for them to defend their own rights and those of their fellow citizens against the abuse of this authority within the limits of the natural law and the Law of the Gospel.50
• ·         2243 Armed resistance to oppression by political authority is not legitimate, unless all the following conditions are met: 1) there is certain, grave, and prolonged violation of fundamental rights; 2) all other means of redress have been exhausted; 3) such resistance will not provoke worse disorders; 4) there is well-founded hope of success; and 5) it is impossible reasonably to foresee any better solution.

Action

Maybe we are not called upon to overthrown a corrupt government.  However, the question remains, "How can we practice Christ-like reconciliation rather than retribution in the big as well as the little things that make life difficult?"  

Driving?  Parking? Dealing with troublesome neighbors?  Coping with rushing and maddening crowds everywhere?  Offer no resistance. Remember, in the words of Pope Leo XIII:  "Nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part of the good."