Deacon Neil’s “Gospel Question of the Week” (Matthew 5: 38-48)...Weekend of 2/22-23/2014...The Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time...In this week’s Gospel, a continuation of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, he tells us how we should react when someone has hurt or offended us. He refers to the Hebrew law about retaliation which was meant to limit the response one would give to the offending party. Jesus asks us to go further than that, however. He asks us to respond to violence against us with a non-violent response or a response of love. As Tevye, the main character in Fiddler on the Roof said when asked about an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, “if everyone followed that, soon the whole world would be blind and toothless.” We know, however, that often our immediate response to being offended is to strike back in some way. This is our human nature playing out, but Jesus asks us to overcome that urge to strike back and respond with love to the offender. It isn’t easy but it is the way the Christian should respond. Some years ago there was a new eighth grade class at the local parish school and they were trouble! Negative and sniping, they were down on everything and everybody, most especially themselves. Nobody wanted to teach the class until finally old Sister Ambrose volunteered. She was a wise old nun, so she did something very simple. She gave each student a list of their classmates. “Next to each name,” she said, “write down all the good things you know about that person. Don’t make anything up. Just write what good you see and give me your papers on Friday,” Over the weekend, she read the students’ comments and then typed for each one a page of all the good things their classmates saw in them. After handing them out, the students were astonished. “Wow, I can’t believe I’m that good” said some. “I didn’t thing anybody noticed.” On an on went their reactions. Years later, many of the class returned for the funeral of one of the boys who had been killed in Vitenam. After the burial they clustered around dear old Sister Ambrose when the young man’s father came along. “Thank you, Sister, for all your help to my boy.” he said. “He grew up fine and made us very proud. Now I want to return to you something you gave him in the eighth grade. With that he pressed into her hand a yellowed piece of paper...read and reread many times. It was the list Sister had given him many years before. Silently and tearfully each of his classmates reached into their wallets and purses and produced their own worn sheets that had also been read and reread over the years. And old Sister Ambrose, leaning heavily on her cane, sighed and whispered a silent “thank you” to God. GOSPEL QUESTION OF THE WEEK: How do you respond when you are offended? Is it easy or hard to forgive?