Turn The Other Cheek

Providentially, the Gospel for today, the memorial of St. Anthony of Padua, the finder of lost objects and a global favorite, is the passage where Jesus urges us to "turn the other cheek."  " You have heard it 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 the right cheek, turn to other one to him as well." (Mt 5: 38-39). This is an especially hard saying in the light of the recent Orlando Massacre.  Yet it stands out as key in our Jubilee Year of Mercy.  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, rightly observed that taking an eye for an eye leaves both blind. Our anger is provoked at this senseless slaughter and the desire for vengeance we experience almost matches the perverted thinking that apparently motivated the shooter. We need to stop, let our anger settle, and reflect on the place of forgiveness and mercy even in this extreme situation.  These words of St. Anthony might help put things in perspective.  Looking at the cross he wrote:  "Christ who is your life is hanging before you, so that you may look at the cross as in a mirror.  There you will be able to know how mortal were your wounds, that no medicine other than the Blood of the Son of God could heal.... Nowhere other than looking  himself in the mirror of the cross can man better understand how much he is worth."  Christ died for me and for all, even for this killer.
May the Lord have mercy on us all.
Bro. Rene