Try A Little Tenderness
Our Gospel for today is a call to gentleness, meekness and humility. Jesus invites us to learn from Him, who is “gentle and humble of heart.” This is alien in the mentality of this world. It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, a rat race, a dog fight. Aggressiveness is the attitude, drawing first blood is the norm. This story best illustrates it.
Two boys were brought to the principal’s office for engaging in a brawl at the school campus. The principal inquired, “Who started this fight?” One of the boys quickly responded, “He did. It all started when he hit me back.”
We want peace. But the peace that we achieve is usually the product of power-wielding attitude. This is far from the Gospel idea of peace. Jesus said somewhere else in the Gospel, “My peace I give you, my peace I leave you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you.” Evangelical peace is genuine peace. The peace of this world is a shallow kind of peace. Jesus’ peace is a consequence of hospitality. The world’s peace is the product of hostility. We feel we have won when we have silenced the other. We feel we have conquered when the other has been defeated. But this is a fragile and shallow kind of peace. The silenced and defeated is only waiting for another day to strike back once he has gathered enough strength.
Jesus wants genuine peace for us: a peace that does not destroy the enemy but the enmity, because the enemy has been won over. This is lasting, this is genuine. And this is achieved only by gentleness and humility. A wise sage once proposed, “If you want to win a debate, don’t just raise your voice. Improve your arguments.”
Was it Michael Buble who crooned, “You won’t regret it, young girls they don’t forget it, love is their only happiness. It’s so, so easy, try a little tenderness.” Fr. Joel O.Jason
Reflection Question:
Gentle water dents even the hardest of rocks. What area of your life is ruled by the philosophy of power, aggression and rashness? In its place, try a little tenderness.
“Grant me serenity within. For the confusion around are mere reflections of what’s within.”
St. Maria Giuseppe Rossello, pray for us.
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