Word to the Wise
Wednesday, November 5, 2025 - Wednesday in the 31th Week in Ordinary Time
[Rom 13:8-10 and Luke 14:25-33]Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandment, 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 no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law. [Romans]
Back in the 1950's, the Mills brothers popularized a song entitled, You always hurt the ones you love. Its lyrics speak to the many ways we hurt the people we love. But Jesus' commandment goes beyond the people we love in the sense of the song. It speaks to strangers and foreigners, the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, the naked...[Matt. 25-31-45]. It extends even to our enemies! [Matt. 5:43-48]. The gospels and St. Paul and the other New Testament writings are quite clear about Jesus' teaching on this. St. Luke gives us the vivid parables of the Prodigal Son, the Rich Man and Lazarus, and the Good Samaritan as examples. The lawyer who posed the question: "And who is my neighbor?" in the story of the parable of the Good Samaritan [Luke 10:25-37] probably asked the question that so many of us ask. Jesus' response was, and still is, "Everyone, including our own selves!"
"Love," in Jesus' teaching, is more than a benign regard or politeness. It is more than avoiding hurt. It may require us to ask ourselves, "What CAN I do?" rather than dwell on what we cannot do. Asking the question about how much we love ourselves is more than egotism or narcissism. How do we express this as Catholics? The Eucharist which is the center of Catholic worship is a remembrance not just of the Last Supper, but the crucifixion as an act of love. Its effects in us should be to love our neighbor with whom we are in communion because, like us, our neighbor is made in the image and likeness of God. The effort to fulfill Jesus' command to love is lifelong and we will fail, as the song says, but forgiveness is also an act of love and we have the Sacrament of Reconciliation to encourage us to keep trying. AMEN