March 1, 2011 – Leviticus 24

We see the idea of an eye for an eye as barbaric because of the physical violence that ensues, but have you ever thought about it as a means to stop the compounding of violence.  When someone is seeking revenge, don’t they tend to reach for a little bit more than what was taken.  You broke my phone so I’m going to break your computer.  The idea of payback leads further and further down a spiral.  This idea of eye for eye appears barbaric, but is there to stop the idea of escalating revenge.  If someone hits you, you get to hit them back, not shoot them.  We could say that we are to educated for that, but are we really.  When we see a story about road rage, what else is that.  Someone bumps somebody’s car so they go, pull them out of the car and beat them up.  Think about all the missile build up in the Cold War.  We build a rocket, so they built a bigger one, so we built a 1,000 big ones, then they built 10,000, so we build defenses to block all theirs and so on.  Eye for an eye is not about the severity of the punishment, but the limitations that is put on it.  Think about it that way.

I just did a reflection on the Eucharist and the Catholic teaching that only Catholics in good standing with the Church should receive.  This chapter talks about the things that are sacred being eaten only by those that are appointed to eat it because they are sacred.  It kind of points to that same idea.