Today is June 16, Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time.
We read at today’s Mass, “But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well” (Mt 5:39).
This verse is, in all honesty, one of the most difficult in all of Sacred Scripture. And I think that’s because of how we’re naturally wired — we crave justice. A slap for a slap, as it were. We long to see things set right.
But Jesus is calling us to something more. He doesn’t set aside justice. He doesn’t ask us to pretend that wrongs don’t exist. No — true justice is necessary. But through justice, he invites us into something deeper: a greater love. That’s what his mercy means. And that’s what he reveals to us through his Sacred Heart.
What Jesus offers us in today’s Gospel is his peace. And that peace, St. John Paul II once said, flows from his heart: “The heart of the Savior is the tangible sign of his invincible love and the inexhaustible source of true peace.”
Searching for peace
Why does this matter? Because when we cry out for justice, what we’re really searching for — what our hearts truly desire — is peace. We want healing. We want restoration. But that can only come from a supernatural source.
St. John Paul II reminds us that “in Christ, the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily.” The peace he brings flows from that divine fullness. This love — this reconciling, saving love — is the gift of God who has loved humanity in the Heart of his only-begotten Son.
Jesus is our peace. Jesus alone is our reconciliation. Through his death on the cross, he put an end to all enmity. That’s why the piercing of his Sacred Heart is so significant. It shows that in his death, he reconciles all men and women to the Father in love.
Let us pray,
O God, strength of those who hope in you, graciously hear our pleas, and, since without you mortal frailty can do nothing, grant us always the help of your grace, that in following your commands we may please you by our resolve and our deeds. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
