Do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow
16 JUNE (Mt 5,38-42)
The Christian is called to be the perfect picture on earth, full of exemplariness of Lord Jesus, who in turn is the perfect picture and perfect exemplariness of his Father. Who is the Father? He is the Giver of every gift. He is also the Giver of himself. He gives himself to us until death on the Cross. Not being able to die himself due to his divinity, he asks the Son to become flesh and deliver his life to death for us. He brought this obedience to fulfilment, without leaving anything out of his Father’s will.
If God is the Giver of himself, if Christ lets himself be given by the Father from the cross, offering him his body as atonement of our debt to justice, can a Christian, called to imitate Jesus the Lord, hold anything for himself? He must give everything for the salvation of his brothers. Now – and this is the mistake of many theological, ascetic and mystic interpreters, philosophers and thinkers of the sacred – salvation is not of the soul, it is not that after our death and it is not blessed Heaven. Salvation is today. It is of the body, spirit and soul. It is of the individual, the family, the local community, the nation and the entire globe in which humanity has been placed by the Lord.
Faced with a state of economic death, which immediately turns also into family, social and even political death, can a Christian hold what he possesses in his coffers? Before Jesus, who gave his own body for us can a Christian remain insensible? Can he close the doors of his heart? Can he pretend he does not hear and does not see? Can he think that his brother and he are two separate and distinct things? If he thinks this and acts this way, he certainly is not yet a disciple of Jesus. He is not even one of his sympathizers. He is a person who knows nothing of Lord Jesus. Furthermore, he approaches in a false way the very sacrament of the Eucharist.
Until in the Christian there will be two communions, one spiritual, mystical and the other real, made up of things, one is not a true disciples of Jesus. He is his true disciple when reality and spirituality become one. We are Christians when we and others form one not only mystical, but also real body. It is the truth of the real body which certifies that we are in the truth of the mystical body. If the real body is not constituted, not even the mystical body is constituted. We live a false, erroneous, lazy and incomplete Christianity, spoiled by the thought of a man who has not yet turned into the thought of Lord Jesus. The duality between Christ and us, between the brothers and us is a true Christian contradiction.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 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. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.
The teaching of Jesus is very clear and eloquent. First of all, He wants us to consider nothing our own. Everything is a gift of God. One can divest himself of everything, both of the body and of things, of time and of all the other gifts that He gave us. If a person turns to us to get a loan – the evangelical loan is not at interest, and should not even be given back – if it is in our power to do good, it must be done, without expecting anything in return, knowing that what is lent to the poor is placed in the bank of heaven at very high interest.
It is God the one who gives us what we have given him and infinitely more. A loan made by us is not to man, it is to Christ and in Christ it is to the Father. Can we deny a loan to Lord Jesus, since every day He gives us everything? If He pours down His life for us constantly, without interruption, can we deny him the loan of anything we can give him without which our life will suffer any damage? Either we enter into the truth of the purest faith, or we are doomed to a selfishness that kills and destroys body, mind, spirit and soul. Selfishness is the denial of Christ.
Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us in the image of Jesus.