another add on:
Jesus then goes on to show clearly that righteousness cannot be defined by the law, but the roots of righteousness must be found at the level of desire. He reveals the evil of human desire to be much more drastic than the law could fathom and righteousness as having to do with a transformation of that desire: so anger is the same as murder, a lustful look the same as adultery, being caught up in the stumbling blocks of desire much worse than any form of physical defect, not one of which can exclude from heaven.
This world of drastically sinful desire is treated as a relational reality: Jesus is not talking about some sort of wicked desire locked into the solitude of an individual person which must somehow must be exorcised. He is talking about a deformation of relationality such that we are scandalized by each other and give scandal to each other. This can be shown by the remedy: freedom is to be found by not allowing oneself to be caused to stumble by the evil done to one: one must not resist evil, on must go the second mile. There is only one way not to be locked into the scandals of this world, and that is by learning to forgive, which means not allowing oneself to be defined by the evil done. It is quite clear from Jesus' teaching that he considers humans to be locked into a certain sort of reciprocity, which it would be wholly consistent to identify with the scandalon, and that he teaches the way out of that sort of reciprocity into a wholly new sort of reciprocity. This new sort of reciprocity is made concrete in forgiveness and other acts of not being trapped by the skandalon and in this way is able to begin to imitate the perfect gratuity of the heavenly Father in whom there is no skandalon.
We can expect to never get far from forgiveness when we are talking about following Jesus. In fact, this is the way - this is the way that breaks the cycle - this is the way that frightens all of us - this is the way that seems absolutely impossible. Forgiveness (outside of those few situations in our lives in which forgiveness is easy) goes across the board and therefore it makes us turn in another direction. In a moment of time, I can come up with a list of people and groups of people I am unable to forgive. Oh yes I can, but I will not. I hold on and hold on and hold on. What comes of that? The same old stuff that always comes from separation and sin - death. And yet, I choose shortening the richness of life within God's Reign for the false power and control that comes from not forgiving. Forgiveness stops the crucifixions that take place every day - the ones in which I participate with joy - nail after nail.
Connection: Be that light - be that salt - be that forgiveness that the world longs to see as a living power that does make things new. In the meantime - when forgiveness seems to be impossible - connect with others who also have trouble with this gift of God's Reign. And there at that time, we may each begin to be a part of the resurrection to new life.
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