Being Forced to Help Jesus

Monday, June 15, 2026

From the Gospel Reading of Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time (Matthew 5:38–42)

"If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles." (Matt. 5:41)

The normal instinct is to resist this instruction of Jesus. We do so because we often cannot see the larger picture. Without the illumination that comes from the Lord, we may fail to discern when God is coming to us in a disguised form, through situations we would not naturally choose.

The instruction of Jesus to go the extra mile must also be read together with his earlier call not to retaliate against the evil person (cf. Matt. 5:38–39).

At first hearing, this may seem to blur the boundaries of justice. But in truth, it reveals how limited our own capacity for judgment is. We often do not see the full story behind the actions of others. The person who has done wrong may already have begun the journey toward conversion and reparation, however slowly. Such a person may need not only correction but also help—perhaps through our prayers or, as Jesus himself instructs in chapter 18, through reaching out to them in a spirit of fraternal concern (cf. Matt. 18:15–20).

Our Lord Jesus did not merely give this instruction; he lived it. Even while hanging on the cross, he prayed for his persecutors, saying, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Lk. 23:34). And have we forgotten the prayer on the lips of Stephen as he was dying: "Lord, do not hold this sin against them" (Acts 7:60)? Both entrusted judgment to God and left room for mercy, repentance, and conversion.

Returning to our verse, I must confess that God's will and call often reach us through constraints. Calm down, my brother, my sister. Do you remember what Matthew tells us when Jesus was being led to Calvary?

"As they went out, they came upon a man of Cyrene, Simon by name; this man they compelled to carry his cross." (Matt. 27:32)

The only real human help our Lord Jesus Christ received in carrying his cross came through compulsion. What a privilege Simon of Cyrene had!

Many similar situations come to mind: people constrained to help others. A mother now compelled to care for the child conceived by her daughter through an unwanted pregnancy; a teacher constrained to go the extra mile with a student struggling to understand; countless instances where people cancel their own plans in order to attend to the urgent needs of others. In such moments, they become like Simon—touching the burden of Christ in the lives of others, often without planning it.

No wonder the next verse says: "Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you" (Matt. 5:42).

Do not misunderstand me as encouraging a spirit of entitlement. But even if we struggle with this word of the Lord, we should bring that struggle to him rather than dismiss his teaching. After Peter confessed his love for Jesus and was charged three times to feed the Lord's sheep (cf. Jn. 21:15–17), the Lord also revealed that this same love would one day lead him where he would rather not go (cf. Jn. 21:18–19).

The invitation, then, is to look beyond the constraint imposed by the Roman soldier and to perceive the silent need of Christ who is mysteriously present in others. Simon saw only a condemned man carrying a cross. Yet he was, in fact, helping the Son of God on the way to Calvary.

May the Lord grant us the grace to see beyond the inconvenience, beyond the interruption, beyond the constraint, and to recognize the opportunities for love and service hidden within them. But this vision can only come through prayer.

Ifeanyichukwu Joseph Ezemba

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