This morning’s Gospel reading is Luke 6:27–38: 

Jesus said to his disciples:

“To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic. Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, and get back the same amount. But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

“Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”

Heaven ... I'm in Heaven ...
And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak
And I seem to find the happiness I seek
When we're out together, dancing cheek to cheek!

The all-time great songwriter Irving Berlin wrote those lyrics ninety years ago for the classic Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers film Top Hat. The lyrics are intended as a love song, meant as entertainment to lift up a demoralized and despondent population. The film's release came amidst the throes of the Great Depression, when the material world turned bleak and hostile and no end point seemed in sight, and despair dominated the world. 

But what if I told you that the Gospels are a love song with the same purpose? What if we are meant to take the same lessons from our readings today as we were given in those days -- that all we have to fear is fear itself, for the Lord will deliver us from our misery as we keep our faith in Him? And that the path to Heaven really is "dancing cheek to cheek"?

This passage from Luke contains Jesus' exhortation to 'turn the other cheek,' a perhaps misread teaching at times. That is what reminded me of the song, obviously, but the entire passage reminds us of two points no matter what specific interpretation applies to any particular situation. The first is that we are to be meek with each other as the Lord is with us, and that we are all brothers and sisters within His family.

To step through meekness, let's look closer at our first reading from 1 Samuel. In this passage, an angry and jealous Saul leads an army looking to destroy David, who will become heir to the kingdom of Israel. David manages to sneak inside Saul's camp and has a perfect opportunity to kill Saul and end the conflict. David not only has the power to do so, he has a legitimate provocation.

However, David refuses to kill Saul. Instead, he takes Saul's spear and water jug from his resting place and carry both back to his camp. "Today, though the Lord delivered you into my grasp," David declares to Saul and his army, "I would not harm the Lord's anointed." 

Meekness is not weakness. Meekness is strength abated for mercy, and justice set aside for love. And this is the way the Lord loves us every moment of the day, for we are sinners for whom justice would otherwise be destruction. The Lord instead takes our spear and water jug and calls to us from across the river, beckoning us to follow Him rather than our own petty appetites and complaints.

That brings Jesus' teaching into much sharper focus. We are not called as disciples of Christ or children of God to wreak our own justice on others on the basis of insult or loss. That does not mean we are not called to create systems of justice to deal with such issues as a matter of public policy; both Exodus and Leviticus deal with the Law of God for those purposes. As a matter of individual action, however, we are called to meekness and mercy rather than revenge or retribution.

Why does Jesus call us to meekness in these cases? We are called to recognize everyone as children of the one God, friends and foes alike. The Father loves all of us and wants to call all of us back to Him as a free-will choice to love Him and all of His family. The Golden Rule is part of that -- Jesus explicitly offers "Do unto others as you would have them to do you" -- but these exhortations go well beyond that rule. Even when people don't treat us the way we wish to be treated, Jesus teaches, we are not to respond in kind, but to temper our anger and sense of injustice against those who have wronged us for the sake of the Father's love.

The Lord does not want us slapping cheeks; He wants us to dance together cheek to cheek, in the familial caritas love He offers to each of us. Our reward may not come in this life, but it will come in the next, and not as a chit of sorts to cash in at the Pearly Gates. Jesus teaches us this to form us in that self-sacrificing caritas love, where we put the salvation of others ahead of our own material appetites and needs. To do that, we have to form ourselves to trust in the Lord, rather than in our own power, that His will for us is better than anything we can accomplish without Him. And this meekness of spirit is how we form ourselves in caritas.

And that is the core purpose of the teaching to "turn the other cheek," and to refuse despair even in dire circumstances. It is not to make us weak, but to strengthen ourselves through His strength, and to orient ourselves to grow in His love. The Lord wants to dance with all of us "cheek to cheek," and comfort us in His love. And that is when we will know we are in Heaven.

For those who love the old standards and the old movies, here is the classic sequence from the 1935 film Top Hat with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. I hope this brings you a little extra joy today. 

Previous reflections on these readings:

• How can we love our enemies? Sunday reflection (2022)
• The quality of mercy is ... what? Sunday reflection (2019)

The front page image is "The Sermon on the Mount" by Jan Brueghel the Elder, 1598. On display at the Getty Center. Via Wikimedia Commons. 

“Sunday Reflection” is a regular feature that looks at the specific readings used in today’s Mass in Catholic parishes around the world. The reflection represents only my own point of view, intended to help prepare myself for the Lord’s day and perhaps spark a meaningful discussion. Previous Sunday Reflections from the main page can be found here.