Word to the Wise
Wednesday, November 4, 2015 - Wednesday in the 31th Week in Ordinary Time
[Rom 13:8-10 and Luke 14:25-33]WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2015 ST. CHARLES BORROMEO [Romans 13:8-10 and Luke 14:25-33] "The commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery; you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,' and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this saying, namely, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does not evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law." The gospels report that when Jesus is asked which of the 613 precepts of the Mosaic Law are the most important, he replied that love of God and love of neighbor were the most important. St. Paul echoes this today in Romans. We are all familiar with his words in 1 Corinthians 13 about love as a gift of the Holy Spirit, but here he is speaking of love as the most important feature of the law. It is the "fulfillment" of the law. In the beginning of today's passage, Paul writes, "Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law." What he means is that love shapes everything. Our obligations to one another should take place in that context. This is truly foreign to much of today's business world or international relations! There is a tendency to regard love as a heroic virtue rather than the ordinary way of doing things. "Business is business!" goes the old saying. Until love becomes our "default" attitude, our world will continue to experience the results of distrust and greed and violence. Why so many choose this way is one of the mysteries of evil. It is all the more reason for those of us who claim to love God need to remember this is empty if we do not love our neighbor, too. AMEN
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