Friday of Week 2 (Year II: reflection

Theme: SAY NO TO REVENGE.

Reading: 1 Sam 24:2–20

How and what do you feel when a person that has caused you pains falls into your hands? Do you see it as an opportunity God has given you to smash his head? Of course, many people will shout yes, especially those who believe that revenge is sweet. For them, revenge makes their blood to cool down, it makes them feel stronger than the enemy, and it helps them to reclaim their ego that has been damaged.

But then, the first reading of today as well as the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ are saying something different and important. Saul had been pursuing David to kill him and David escaped into the mountains for safety. In today’s reading, an opportunity came for David to kill Saul and, possibly, end his nightmare. His companions persuaded him to take his chance, but he refused to have his revenge. By refusing to reduce himself to the level of his attacker, David showed himself stronger than his attacker, for real strength lies in restraint, not in revenge. Jesus also cautioned all of us against revenge when he urged us to say no to eye for eye and tooth for tooth, but to forgive offenders and leave revenge for God.

Dear friends, David has shown us an example to follow in our treatment of those who make life unbearable for us. Revenge does not solve a problem, it doesn’t stop evil, rather, it ignites a cycle of revenge which will not end well for everyone at the end; eye for eye will definitely lead everyone to blindness. Also, revenge is not sweet because it does not bring out the best version of us, neither does it repair our ego, rather, it molds us into that being which we don’t want to be; revenge hurts everyone involved, even the one practicing it. Revenge closes the door for the reparation of a fractured relationship, it blocks reconciliation. Revenge traps everyone involved in it in an evil done in the past.

Dear friends, the cycle of evil needs courageous men to stop it, and it can be stopped by restraint, not by revenge. Like David, let us not listen to those voices that spur us on to take revenge.

May your efforts this Friday be crowned with resounding success, Amen.

Fr Isaac C. Chima