ct for the rhythm of God. He knew he would be king one day and he did not wish to grab the position before the due time.
This restraint, hinted at in the Hebrew Scriptures, finds its full flowering in the New Testament. At a most solemn moment in his ministry, when all his disciples are gathered round him, Jesus says quite simply, ‘love your enemies, do good to those who hate you’ (Luke 6:27). What his hearers made of this we are not told. They may have thought he was crazy! How can you love people who persecute you and do all manner of evil against you? The Romans, for example, were the latest in a long line of oppressors. The tax-collectors squeezed and cheated the public by their own admission (Luke 19:8). Yet Jesus insists, ‘to the man who slaps you on one cheek, present the other too.’
We are challenged here to recognize where real power lies. It does not lie in the use of force but in absorbing it and neutralizing it. It lies in the strength of truth. The truth is that the only way to reconciliation and harmony is respect and acceptance of each other. Napoleon and Hitler dreamt of dominating the world by force. The United Nations and the European Union know that unity can only come through understanding and respect.
This week, those of us who are Christians enter a period we call ‘lent.’ (The word seems to come from the lengthening of the days as winter ends in the Northern Hemisphere). Lest all life becomes a repetition of the same the Church puts before us periods of hot experience. She provokes us into another gear so that we look at our lives and perhaps notch up our awareness a bit. The Muslims do the same. They call it Ramadan. (The word comes from ‘heat’ in Arabic). It is a period of self denial and restraint intended to prepare the human spirit for welcoming ever more fully the divine life offered to those made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27).
Restraint should be interior, a personal conviction – not something imposed from outside. That is why the Catholic Church, for one, has stopped imposing virtually all fasting and invites members to make their own personal choices. That is much more demanding, more meaningful. George Washington, the first President of the United States, restrained himself from seeking a third term as President. Although there was nothing in the Constitution no president after him felt free to break with his example (until the Second World War presented unusual circumstances allowing Roosevelt to go for a third (and a fourth) term).
But it is not only a matter of the restraint of presidents. Each of us is called to look hard at the choices we make during this time of Lent and see too where we can restrain ourselves so that others can live.
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