Here is your Lectio Divina for Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time, written in the first person and in the voice of G. K. Chesterton, using the common word and theme “resistance.”
Lectio Divina
Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
“Resistance”
1. Lectio
Matthew 5:38-42
«”But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.”»
The Old Testament commandment was meant to moderate vengeance; the punishment should not exceed the injury done. Jesus forbids even proportionate retaliation. Of the examples that follow, only the first deals directly with retaliation for evil; the others speak of generosity and liberality.
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2. Meditatio
As I travel through Scotland, I have become fascinated by the foxglove flowers growing along the roadsides. They appear delicate and harmless, offering no resistance to anyone who might pluck them. Their blossoms are so inviting that a child could easily slip them over his fingers like tiny purple thimbles.
Yet appearances deceive.
Foxglove, beautiful though it is, contains a deadly poison. Its scientific name, Digitalis, gives us medicines that heal hearts when used wisely and poisons hearts when used carelessly. It reminds me that the difference between remedy and toxin often lies not in the thing itself but in the spirit with which it is received.
Jesus tells me to “offer no resistance to one who is evil,” and I am tempted to hear that as a command to become spineless or indifferent. But perhaps Our Lord is not calling me to surrender truth but to renounce vengeance. There is a world of difference between refusing retaliation and refusing discernment.
Indeed, there needs to be a distinctive way of looking at things—a way of thinking, policies, education, a lifestyle, and even a spirituality—that generates resistance to the poison hidden within both the foxglove and the technocratic paradigm.
For the Church’s vocation and duty to accompany humanity in history leads her to recognize that earthly realities possess their own proper character and order. As the Second Vatican Council taught in Gaudium et Spes:
«”If by the autonomy of earthly affairs is meant that created things and societies themselves enjoy their own laws and values… then the demand for autonomy is perfectly in order.”»
Creation bears the imprint of an original goodness that my human outlook is called to preserve, cultivate and bring to fulfillment, much as a gardener learns to admire the foxglove without consuming it.
In this regard, the Church offers herself not as a tyrant but as an interpreter of reality in all its depth. She supports with humble firmness those choices that promote the dignity of every person, the cohesion of communities, and the good of all.
The Church stands beside the world without overpowering it, so that the promise of justice and peace which the Holy Spirit sustains in the human heart may come to fruition.
Perhaps that is why Christianity is so paradoxical.
It offers no resistance to evil men, yet enormous resistance to evil itself.
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3. Oratio
Lord Jesus,
You who were silent before Your accusers,
teach me the difference between meekness and cowardice.
Save me from the desire to retaliate,
and save me equally from the temptation to call evil good.
Grant me the wisdom to recognize the poisons hidden beneath beautiful appearances,
and the humility to recognize the goodness hidden beneath difficult circumstances.
May I resist vengeance,
but never resist Your grace.
May I oppose falsehood,
without ceasing to love those who are lost within it.
And may Your Sacred Heart teach me that the strongest souls are not those who conquer others,
but those who have learned to conquer themselves.
Amen.
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4. Contemplatio (Chestertonian Synthesis)
G. K. Chesterton once observed that Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.
Modern man imagines resistance to consist in clenched fists, angry words, and perpetual outrage. Yet Christ resisted evil while allowing nails to be driven into His hands.
The Cross itself is the supreme paradox. It appears to offer no resistance whatsoever. Yet it is the very instrument by which sin, death, and hell were overthrown.
Even the foxglove teaches me something of this mystery. God hides powerful things in fragile forms. Medicine comes from poison. Strength appears in weakness. Saints arise from sinners.
The world admires those who dominate.
Christ admires those who endure.
And perhaps the greatest resistance of all is not striking back when wounded, but remaining charitable when one has every excuse not to be.
For evil expects hatred.
And is forever bewildered by love.May Saint Ephrem, whose hymns delighted in the paradoxes hidden in creation, teach me to see in every flower, every mountain, and every cross the fingerprints of the Creator who makes all things new.
Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
