“And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also.”
If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them — the cheek-turning and coat-giving are the specific applications of non-retaliatory response. The slap on the cheek is an insult rather than an attack; turning the other cheek refuses to accept the insulting framework. The coat taken and the shirt offered communicate generosity beyond what is demanded.
Church Fathers on Luke 6:29
Having spoken above of what they might suffer from their enemies, He now points out how they ought to conduct themselves towards their enemies’ saying, But I say to you who hear.
Having proceeded in the enumeration of many heavenly actions, He not unwisely comes to this place last, that He might teach the people confirmed by the divine miracles to march onward in the footsteps of virtue beyond the path of the law. Lastly, among the three greatest, (hope, faith, and charity,) the greatest is charity, which is commanded in these words, Love your enemies.
It is indeed the part of an enemy to injure and be treacherous. Every one then who does harm in any way to any one is called his enemy.
Read all 18 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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