Word to the Wise
Saturday, May 14, 2022 - May 14 - St. Matthias, Apostle
[Acts 1:15-17, 20-26 and John 15:9-17]"As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you." [John]
I once saw a wall pennant with a picture from the comic strip PEANUTS that featured Lucy's little brother Linus saying: "I love humanity. It's people I hate!" Jesus' challenge to "love one another as I love you" is a tough one. It is a simple one that immediately causes a lot of people to say, "What if........?" Then begins the "loophold hunt" to find ways around that command!! It was not just given to those at the Last Supper. It is given to us. Jesus predicts his ultimate expression of love when he says, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." St. Paul acknowledges the difficulty in Romans 5:7: "Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even have courage to die!
The subject is as complicated as humans can get! Many have died for "love of country." We have a Congressional Medal of Honor that honors those heroes. But, love of country is not the same as love for another particular human being who upsets us or irritates us or challenges our cherished prejudices or political opinions or threatens us in some way. What do we say in answer to the parable of the final judgment in Matthew 25:31-45 when Jesus points out what we may or may not have done for him in our neighbor?
Jesus points to a love that is not focused on good feelings, but one that "endures all things" [1 Cor. 13:7]. Looking for loopholes in Jesus' command and "What if....." questions can reveal to us how much we need to do to live out that command. AMEN