An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Can you imagine what this world would be like? We’d all be blind and walking around unable to eat our food. Revenge is what we hear from the Hebrew Scriptures, and Jesus challenges that in the gospel today. But I am not sure that’s the truth of the matter. Years ago, and I mean years ago now, when I was back in college, I went to Loyola University and at Loyola University you had to take four theology courses. So one of the four theology courses I took was in the Jewish Traditions. I wanted to learn more about our Judaeo-Christian roots, and the class was taught by a Rabbi and what I learned in the this class on Judaism was this, that in the Hebrew Scriptures, in the Hebrew writing there’s no punctuation. So is it truly and eye for and eye, a tooth for a tooth, exclamation point? Revenge?

The Rabbi offered us in class another way to look at that particular passage. An eye for and eye. A tooth for a tooth? A question, it’s a question. Is that the behavior that we are to be about in this world of ours as the very children of God. I like that interpretation far better, and it’s a wonderful question to ask. An eye for an eye? A tooth for a tooth? Why?

You know in the City of Chicago right now and beyond, revenge, violence, sisters and brothers going at it. The murder rate, it’s horrendous. And the gospel calls all of us, those who are the children of God, those who are the disciples of the Lord Jesus, all of us to do what we can to promote peace in our own families, and in our neighborhoods, and in our community, and in the world. We are to be people of peace and to stand for peace in this world of ours. You know Mahatma Gandhi said many things of a different religious persuasion, but one of the things that he said that really caught my attention is this, he said, “You be the change. You be the change that you want for the world.” It has to begin with us. If we want peace in our families, peace in our community, peace in our school, peace in our workplace, then it has to begin with each and every one of us. That’s where it begins. You be the change that you want for the world. My mother’s favorite song was, “Let There Be Peace on Earth, and let It Begin With Me.” Great wisdom in my mother. Great wisdom in that hymn. Let us pray for peace in this world and let it begin with each and every one of us.