Today, we celebrate the Feast of Saints Cyprian and St. Cornilius. Here is a quote from St. Cyprian.  “You who are envious, let me tell you that however often you may seek for the opportunity of injuring him whom you hate, you will never be able to do him so much harm as you do harm to yourselves.   He whom you would punish through the malice of your envy, may probably escape but you will never be able to fly from yourselves.”

We can apply this to other areas of sins in our relationship to others. No matter what we do to the other person in retaliation, the greater the harm we do is to ourselves. In our actions we are saying to Jesus to treat us the same way. Recall the words of Jesus: "The measure with which you measure will be measured back to you." The way of the Lord is different from the way of the world or the "norm" set by others. We are called to bless those who seek to harm us. That is counter cultural. Aren't we suppose to be counter cultural like Jesus?