Father Dave Swantek is the pastor of St. Martha’s Catholic Church in Point Pleasant, NJ in the United States. He is one of the most dynamic homilists that I have ever heard. And not just among Catholic priests. He has the unique ability to take scripture and apply it on a personal level. So that each person can understand the message individually. I would highly recommend listening to him on YouTube as a supplement to regular Sunday Mass attendance.
Father Dave often tells the story of an automobile accident he was in when another driver slammed into the car he was driving, along with some fellow seminarians. He was injured fairly significantly and his response was persistent disdain for the other driver. He could not go a day without thinking hurtful thoughts for the individual and it began to effect his daily outlook. He approached his spiritual advisor for some help in managing his emotions. To his surprise, the advisor recommended for Father Dave to recite this prayer each time he had angry thoughts:
“Bless them. Change me“
Well, needless to say, Father Dave was incensed. “What do you mean bless them? And change me?!” CHANGE HIM!! He reluctantly went along with the advice, at first repeating the phrase dozens of times per day. Over time, he found himself only needing to repeat the prayer infrequently. Eventually the hate diminished and disappeared. He now uses the phrase anytime someone causes him to be upset.
What the phrase does is essentially subscribing to Jesus’ command in today’s Gospel. To love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. To ask for God to enter their hearts with His grace and blessing and open them up to His love. And at the same time, Father Dave’s phrase asks God to change us. To take away our hate, changing from wishing the person harm to offering them God’s mercy and forgiveness.
“Tit for Tat”. This is the phrase we used often as children when we were harmed by someone. They should get exactly what they gave. You throw a rock at me. I throw a rock at you. We go to see our high school play in a basketball game, and you walk out on me to hang with a more popular group of kids. And I never talk to you again (yes…that actually happened to me, as I am sure you can tell). “An Eye for an eye”. But Jesus calls us to be more than a “getting even” people.
Jesus calls us to be “Perfect” as your heavenly Father is perfect. In my readings I learned that perfect means, “complete, whole, and fully developed”. In a way, it means we are mature. No longer childish. While we are called to be child-like. We are not meant to be childish. So to pray for those who harm you…Bless Them…we are displaying a level of maturity that God intended for us…Change Me.
And in a way, the nation of Israel was asked by God to behave in the same way. Being captives in Egypt for over 400 years, they had lost their faith. Their traditional practices. They had become childish in their relationship with God. The time spent in the desert allowed God time to help them to mature in their faith. The Mosaic law was meant to take a people from religious infancy to maturity by the time they crossed into the land of Canaan. Abraham made a covenant with God to serve Him as the one true God. And in response, God would bless him immeasurably. This covenant was passed down through the generations but was interrupted by the exile in Egypt. It was renewed again at the foot of Sinai. God asking His people to strive for perfection. To grow to maturity.
And why was it important for the Israelites to be perfect? Because God intended for them to be a model for all nations. A light to shine in the darkness. For pagans to know the wonder of that One, True God. And we are asked to be that same light to a world that believes in, “an eye for an eye”. While, instead, we pray “Bless Them. Change Me”
