Episode Details

Jesus points out today in the Gospel that this principal enunciated in the title was development of Jewish law or the Mosaic Law. However, Jesus perfects it by saying that we should not even think about getting back at our opponents. We should expose our other cheek if he hits us on the other. This means that we need to forgive our offenders. The violence has to end in us. We should not spread the violence to others, beginning with the one who is our aggressor. This does not mean that Our Lord wants us to be like sitting ducks. We can defend ourselves, and we should fight back following justice and self-defense. However, in situations where we cannot achieve that, we need to learn to forgive the others and not spread the harm. We need to imitate Jesus during His Passion and Death on the Cross. He absorbed all of the cruelty of His enemies.