AGERE CONTRA - TO ACT AGAINST - 7TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2/20/2022)

SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

February 20, 2022

1 Samuel 26:7-9, 12-13, 22-23
Psalm 103
1 Corinthians 15:45-49
Luke 6:27-38

AGERE CONTRA- TO ACT AGAINST

Acting against our human inclinations is difficult, requiring a death to self. For example, it's natural and easy to love people who love you and treat you well, but not easy at all to love those who don't. That is the lesson in today's readings - David sparing the life of Saul, and Jesus' teaching on loving our enemies.

1 SAMUEL

Sometimes people say about a relationship, "it's complicated." Well, it's safe to say that the relationship between Saul and David was very complicated - love/hate, on/off, friend/enemy. 

Saul had been anointed Israel's first king but lost favor with the Lord through his disobedience to the Lord's commands. David was then anointed king while Saul was still living, but David still respected the Lord's anointing on Saul!   Complicated, right? 

David actually spared Saul's life twice. Once David caught Saul alone and vulnerable in a cave, but simply cut off a corner of Saul's robe (cf. 1 Samuel 24).

In the episode related here in our first reading, David and Abishai sneak into Saul's camp while he is sleeping. David could easily have killed him then, but did not. The words of David are memorable: "Today, though the Lord delivered you into my grasp, I would not harm the Lord's anointed."

David "acted against" the pull of his natural instincts and the urging of his companion, as must we in so many cases.

GOSPEL

Today's gospel from Luke is similar to that which Matthew records in the Sermon on the Mount. It could be summarized as follows: "Agere contra - act against the pull of your fallen nature, the "old man," the flesh, and allow the grace of the Holy Spirit to give you supernatural strength to do better."

Specifically, the Lord challenges us in these ways:

--don't seek revenge
--be generous
--treat others as you want to be treated
--it's only praiseworthy if we are generous to those who can't repay us - the Lord will reward
--be merciful, as God is
--don't judge, don't condemn...rather, forgive
--the measure you give is the measure you will get back

In this way, then, by acting against, we will be imitating God our Father. That is what David did in our first reading.

1 CORINTHIANS

Today's second reading contrasts Adam with Christ. Adam received life from God. We all receive new life from Christ. The first man, Adam, was natural and earthly. The second man, Christ, is spiritual and heavenly. Just as all of us are descendants from Adam according to nature, so are we descendants from Christ according to the Spirit.

It is only if we have the Spirit of Christ that we can "act against" the pull of our lower nature, the flesh. We are inclined to be natural and earthly - to speak harshly and to get revenge. It is the "second Adam," who gives us the Holy Spirit so that we can act in a Christ-like way - loving, merciful, compassionate, forgiving.

ACTING AGAINST

I think I first heard the expression agere contra from Fr. Harold Cohen, SJ, as he was preaching and teaching on St. Ignatius Loyola's Spiritual Exercises. That expression comes up frequently in the Exercises. It is simply a positive, concrete way of denying our self-will, of "crucifying the flesh with its passions and desires" (Gal. 5:24), of dying to self and living to God.

Only in the power and grace of the Holy Spirit can we ever hope to do that.