Please read this passage before reading the homily.
My sisters and brothers,
If someone slaps you on your right cheek, he has slapped you with the back of his hand and that is very insulting.
The Romans were the imperialists of the ancient world. Their imperialism was very hard and rough for the Jewish people at the time of Jesus.
For the Jewish person of those times, the person who walked one mile was using a Roman word, mile instead of stadia. The person who walked a mile was a person who was remembering that the Romans owned the Jewish people.
Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth means to resist the oppressive Romans. Jesus, however, says not to resist the oppressors, the Romans.
This teaching of Jesus was not abstract, but was down to earth in the daily life of the Jewish people living under the Roman. The Romans could levy taxes on the Jewish people, crucify them and look down of them. Under the Romans, the Jewish people could do nothing except suffer the tyranny of their conquerors.
The command of Jesus, that we love even our enemies and those who hate us challenges us in the depth of our being to love those who do not love us or who oppress us. The Ukrainians have to love the Russians. We in the United States have to love the Chinese, the people of Turkey and the Syrians. Democrats and Republicans have to love one another. We cannot remove ourselves from this commandment of Christ.
We have to be perfect just as our Father in heaven is perfect. We have to welcome others with the same pardon with which God welcomes us.