Taking it Home: Jesus was walking down the road with his disciples. Some people threw stones at him and cursed him. Jesus blessed them. The disciples asked him, "Master why do you bless those who curse you?" Jesus replied, "I can only give what I have in my sack."
  When we are attacked, there is an instinctive drive to protect ourselves and fight back. It is what we do because the negative pressure of our outer world does not give us much time to think. The outer world wants us on its terms. Now those terms may not always be what we would choose, but these terms are often how we react. And so not feeling so secure about our deeper, loving identity, we usually are unable to find our sack, but a rock always seems to be close at hand.
   This deeper loving identity, however, is who we are called to be. By our baptism, which connects us all as members of the one body of Christ, we are to literally bear the image of Christ to the world. We are the image of Christ and, like Christ, we are called to be shining lights in a world of impending darkness. We are called to give the world what should only be in our sack. But what does all this mean?
   In our gospel, Jesus describes qualities of disciplship. These are the qualities that Jesus displayed throughout his lifetime, the qualities that filled his sack - qualities like love of enemies, total self-giving, forgiveness and compassion. And so if by our baptism we too are to be the continuing presence of Christ to the world, then we also have a responsibility to live these qualities in our lives. The bottom line is this: if we feel we have the right to judge and condemn others, if we feel we don't need to be generous and giving, if we feel we don't need to be forgiving and compassionate, where then is the light of Christ still shining in the darkness?
  But we object! We say we live in a world that pressures us to instinctively react to the darkness that surrounds us, which leads us to do to others before they can do it to us. And that seems to make what we do okay. So instead of doing good to others who hate us, we get them back (so a certain president seems to think). Instead of offering our other cheek to the one who strikes us, we hit them back in return. It is the way of our world and it is simply a matter of survival. Unfortunately, this seems to only escalate the violence in the world. But what Jesus is really saying to us is that for the violence and hatred to end in this world, we need to end it in ourselves first. But this is so hard; how can we do it?
  Fortunately, in between the time when someone does something to us and we react, there is a time for a pause. Stephen Covey in his 8th Habit From Effectiveness to Greatness says it this way. Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In those choices lie our growth and our happiness. -- The qualities that Jesus exhibits in his lifetime, in particular those Jesus mentions in the gospel, are the qualities of God. And these very same qualities are the gifts that God gives us through unconditional grace. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we too can learn to exhibit these qualities in our relationships with others around us as we learn to appreciate what God desires for us. In other words, God has given us the ability to defeat the darkness and the negative flow of events around us. We just need to take the time to find that inner space where God unconditionally loves us. This is our deeper loving identity that is at our core. This is the love that fills us and that will help make our speech and actions worthy of being a child of God.
  Unfortunately, what Jesus gives us in the gospel are general imperatives for gracful living. They are not specific instructions about what to actually do and say. So pausing is necessary for us to figure out our response. So if you see me in a silent pause in the midst of a series of negative events, I am not lost, I am only trying to find my sack.            

                                                 Deacon John