Category Archives: love of neighbor

Thoughts on the Sunday readings: Learning to serve the living God (30th Sunday in Ordinary Time – A)

26 Sunday Oct 2014

Posted by in love of God, love of neighbor, overcoming idols

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In his book The Devil You Don’t Know, Fr. Louis Cameli makes the important observation that as Christians we believe that not only has God made all creation from nothing (ex nihilo) but also that God has created “from love” and now, through Christ, God is summoning all creation back to the fullness of love.  Where the omnipotence of God is revealed in creation from nothing; the heart of God is made known in creation from and for love.  In Christ, we encounter God as love and we learn that the dynamic of true and authentic love stands at the very foundation of all creation and even within the very life of the Creator himself.
The two commandments of love of God and love of neighbor were not necessarily new in the time of Jesus.  What is unique about the gospel teaching of Christ is that our Lord inter-connects the two.  Love of God and love of neighbor now become an intersecting point for one another.  In this reality it is helpful to note that God does not compete for love with men and women; in a certain sense he does not insist on the reciprocity of love (which should obviously exist). Jesus does not say: “Love me as I have loved you,” but: “Love one another as I have loved you.”  This sets the tone for our love of God and of one another.  
This is singularly important as it leads us into an awareness of the very depth of love that God calls us to: a love that does not need to compete, a love that does not seek self but rather is willing to die to self, a love that wills the good of the other.
On the surface to contemplate living this truth of love is daunting to say the least and, left to our own devices, impossible.  But God is with us and God is patient.  In our second reading from Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians (1 Thes 1:5c-10) we can take comfort because we can learn that the progress in faith that Paul refers to can be our progress also.  Paul reminds the community of how they welcomed him, and how they became “imitators” of he and the Lord, “receiving the word” to the point of becoming a “model for all believers”.  Finally Paul reminds the community of how they, “…turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God…”  It is not coincidence that in all of this we hear the language of journey and progress.   
As we make this journey and progress of faith – learning a love that does not need to compete, that does not need to seek self, that can will the good of the other – then we begin to leave the idols of our day behind and we begin to turn to God in truth.  The idols of our day are many.  We heard of two of them in the first reading (Ex. 22:20-26)  – fear of the stranger, the alien and the one who is different as well as greed.  But there are others; violence, fear of encounter, narcissism of self and group, gossip, rumor and pride (just to name a few).  The idols of our world are many and for each of us they are also particular.  Each one of us is weighed down by our “idols”.  No one is exempt.  Often, they seem so impassible and fixed – even to the point of leaving us with the false belief that this is just the way things are and nothing can change.  
Love of God and love of neighbor are not a static point that is weak and ineffectual in our world of today, rather these two “greatest of commandments” are a journey that always leads to new life and new strength!  Faith is a journey of learning the reality of the love of God, learning to live that reality and through this coming to understand that the idols don’t have the final say, that (in fact) they are often illusions and that we can leave them behind and live a different way!  We can live with a love that does not compete, that does not seek self and that can will the good of the other above all else.  We can put our idols aside and we can learn to serve the living God! 
“You shall love the Lord, your God … You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” 

Thoughts on the Sunday readings: Seventh Sunday (A): The Law of Generosity

22 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by in generosity, God's love, homily, love of God, love of neighbor

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The “eye for an eye” teaching that our Lord refers to in today’s gospel (Mt. 5:38-48) was actually an attempt to restrict violence in a time when revenge was indiscriminate and excessive.  In the revenge culture of the time not only was it the perpetrator of a violent act who became a possible target for reprisal but any member of the same family, clan, ethnic group or even someone “thought” to be responsible or connected.  The culture of revenge was excessive.  Sadly, the same mentality of revenge is still present and active in our world today.  
An “eye for an eye” therefore was an attempt to limit the continuous cycle of revenge and violence.  For our Lord though it was not enough.  His desire is not just to limit the cycles and structures of violence but to heal the human heart from which all evil desires spring.  Evil and violence can never overcome evil and violence, even when co-opted for a good.  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had an astute awareness of this truth.  In his writings and speeches we certainly find the call to end the massive injustices that the African-American community faced but we also find Dr. King reflecting on how the path of non-violence was also meant as a means to help heal those white brothers and sisters whose hearts were hardened by racism and prejudice.  
God says to Moses, Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy.  You shall not bear hatred for your brother or sister in your heart.  Though you may have to reprove your fellow citizen, do not incur sin because of him.  Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against any of your people.  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  (Lv. 19:1-2, 17-18)
In contrast to the law of co-opted violence, our Lord calls us to the law of abundant generosity – to be holy as God is holy, who makes the sun to rise on the bad as well as the good.  God is love; he is abundant in his mercy.  Our Lord is not naïve; he knows the full weight of evil and violence.  On the cross, Jesus took on the full weight of sin and its structures.  
In the law of abundant generosity, Jesus is calling us to a pragmatism of generosity.  Evil and violence cannot heal the human heart (even when co-opted in an attempt for the good).  Evil and violence cannot end the cycles of revenge and violence … only love can.  When someone strikes you on one cheek, turn the other one.  When someone wants your tunic, give your cloak as well.  When someone presses you into service for one mile, go for two.  Our Lord proposes to us the pragmatism of generosity.  It is through this pragmatism that is found true healing for hearts that are wounded and hardened.  
There is a story told of a painter who arrived one day in a small town and set himself up in the town square offering portrait paintings. For a few days he sat in the square with no one purchasing a portrait.  On the fourth day the artist approached the town drunk (whom he had noticed earlier) and said, “Listen, come and let me paint your portrait.  I need to keep my skills up and at the end you will have a free portrait.”  The man agreed.  He sat in the portrait chair and straightened himself up as best he could.  The painter looked at him silently, reflected for a few moments, smiled and began to paint.  The painting continued for a few days but the painter would never allow the man to view the painting while it was in progress.  Finally, the portrait was completed.  The painter handed the portrait to the man and the man’s mouth fell open.  Pictured in the painting was not a town drunk but an accomplished man – there was a gleam in his eyes, he held a steady gaze.  Instead of scruffy clothes and a disheveled appearance, the man was clean shaven and wore a nice suit.  “What is this?” demanded the man, “You have not painted me.”  “You are right,” replied the painter calmly, “I have not painted you as you now are but as the man whom you might become.”
The pragmatism of generosity sees and responds to the other person in terms of who he or she is meant to be.  Jesus calls us to live this law of generosity – to be holy as God is holy.

The divisive love of Christ: 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

18 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by in compassion, God's love, love of God, love of neighbor, peace of Christ

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“Peace cannot exist without a strong and passionate love.”    

This Sunday’s gospel (Lk. 12:49-53) presents us with this truth for our consideration.  Christ speaks here as with a sense of urgency!  I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!  What Christ brings to us is not a theory or a proposal but the very fire of God’s love!  This fire has a name: compassion.  At one point in Matthew’s gospel we are told that when Christ looked out on the vast crowd he had compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.  And how great is our Lord’s anguish until it is accomplished!  Our Lord burns with the love of the Father which is the love of compassion!   

Unfortunately, in our world, this love can be obscured and even suffocated.  The violence and indifference of our world can suffocate compassion.  Even we disciples can suffocate compassion when we turn from the invitation of our Lord to follow solely our own priorities and interests.  It is easy to resign ourselves to the world thinking, “well, that is just the way things are…”   

But, the Lord continually comes to us and says, I have come to set the earth on fire… Do you think that I have come to establish peace on earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division.  True compassion, when lived and witnessed, shocks us because – if even just for a moment – it forces our gaze away from ourselves and toward another.   

This is the divisive peace that our Lord brings to the earth.  The peace of the gospel is not the world’s peace – peace as a nice, reassuring intimacy and justification for isolation.  Christ did not come to the earth to defend the peace of our little self-centeredness; rather, he came to hold forth the call of love for others, for compassion.  Christ did not come to defend the peace of the rich man who did not notice the starving Lazarus at his door, nor did Christ come to defend the peace of the priest and the Levite who avoided the man lying helpless on the road.  This is not peace.  Rather it is avarice, meanness, insensitivity and just plain sin.   

Peace cannot exist without strong and compassionate love! 

The peace that Christ brings is divisive!  It divides us from our self-centeredness.  It divides us from our insensitivity to the needs of others.  It divides us from attitudes of resignation and withdrawal.  It shifts our focus and our heart toward the other in his or her need.  It will not allow us to resign ourselves to a comfortable, yet ultimately life-denying, sense of isolation. 

The fire that Christ brings to earth is the fire of God’s compassion.  It continues to burn and it continues to purify! 
 
Lord, enkindle in us the fire of your love!  

(Some thoughts in this reflection are borrowed from Bp. Vincenzo Paglia’s reflection on this Sunday’s readings.)

Teach us how to pray – Teach us how to love: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

28 Sunday Jul 2013

Posted by in authenticity, freedom, love, love of God, love of neighbor, prayer

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In order to love one must be free.  Love can neither be forced nor contrived.  For love to be authentic it must be freely given and freely received.  This is love’s dynamic and yet, just as love depends on freedom love, itself, makes us freer.  In John’s first letter we are told that perfect love casts out all fear.  Love creates true freedom.  In this Sunday’s second reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Colossians we are reminded of this salvific fact.  Christ, out of love, took on our sinfulness, “obliterating the bond against us, with its legal claims, which was opposed to us, he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross.” 

In Christ we have been set free but this is not a freedom to do whatever we please.  This is not authentic freedom rather; it is a misuse of freedom.  The freedom we gain from the love of Christ is the freedom to enter more deeply into honest relationship with God and with one another.  This freedom begins in the very knowledge that in Christ we are loved beyond measure – each and every one of us.   

The sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were many but at the heart of these sins was the abuse of relationship, particularly the abuse of the visitor, the stranger.  This sin is brought out all the more in contrast to the passage directly preceding that about Sodom and Gomorrah (last Sunday’s readings).  In last Sunday’s passage Abraham welcomes the three visitors, he honors his relationship with them and he treats it as a sacred reality to be respected.  The people of Sodom and Gomorrah, on the other hand, do not.  Their sin is great and grave.   

It is easy to judge Sodom and Gomorrah and hold ourselves superior but I wonder if one of the factors of their sinfulness is a factor also present in our own day and time – a life lived in distraction.  John Garvey, in an article he wrote entitled, “A Tree Full of Monkeys: Why the Soul Needs Silence” makes a good observation: 

It takes effort to be clear about the moment we are in.  It requires taking time … We need, through practice, to be made aware of what is wrong about ordinary waking circumstances; it takes effort to do this … it matters, especially in a time when distraction and ideological reinforcement matter more to the culture than sober clarity does.  This inattention disrupts our lives at every level – religious, political, aesthetic … Prayer (silence) can begin to make us feel what is directly underfoot, can help us begin to understand where we really are, in the presence of the sacred… 

A life of distraction, a life of inattention inhibits freedom and therefore hinders growth in true love and honest relationship and (if left unchecked both in lives of individuals and of society) can be a contributing factor in the abuse of others – those who are indeed our brothers and our sisters.  For this we will each have to give an accounting before the judgment seat of God.  To love, one must be free.  A distracted life is not a free life. 
 
It is worthy to note that in this Sunday’s gospel (Lk. 11:1-13), after our Lord gives us the Our Father, he goes on to further explain prayer by use of three images specifically based in relationship and attentiveness – the attention of one friend to another in need, the willingness to trust in relationship with God and therefore to ask, to seek, to knock and the attentive love of a father to the needs of a child.  Let us not fool ourselves.  Love can easily and sadly be compromised on all levels and in many ways.  The mind can easily become a “tree full of monkeys”.  The soul needs silence and prayer not just for sanity but also to safeguard freedom, honest relationship and attentiveness to the needs of the other. 

The disciples’ request, “teach us to pray” is another way of asking, “teach us how to love.”

God truly present: Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

03 Saturday Nov 2012

Posted by in homily, love of God, love of neighbor, presence of God

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Not long ago I had a conversation with a man who is a convert to Catholicism.  I asked him what was it that brought him into the faith.  He replied that when he was a young man the company he worked for got a job to do some restoration work in a Catholic Church.  When he and his boss met with the parish priest to go over the work needing to be done he was struck by the sight of the priest genuflecting before the tabernacle as they entered the church.  In that simple action he realized that God was present in that church.  This awareness remained with him and grew and it began the process and journey that eventually led him into the Catholic Church.  He told me, “Prior to that I had a notion that God was everywhere yet not really present.  In the Catholic Church I have found God truly present.”

God truly present!  This is the Catholic intuition.  It is what underlies our understanding of the sacraments, the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle, the Catholic approach to prayer, mysticism and (in fact) the entire life of discipleship.  The understanding of God truly present is also foundational in our belief in the communion of saints which we just celebrated on November 1st with the Feast of All Saints.  It is not just that saints were good men and women who did good deeds (worthy of being nominated for CNN’s annual “Heroes” celebration).  God became truly present to the world in the lives of the saints and these men and women became truly transformed and reflective of the presence of God.  (The Catholic understanding of relics is rooted in this reality.)  The saints are, in fact, quite subversive because their very lives witness against a materialistic-only view of reality as well as a vague sense of the Divine that is content in keeping God removed and far off.  These are both tendencies seeking to be persuasive in our world today, yet the saints witness to something both different and real – the incarnational and sacramental truth of the Christian faith.     

God truly present as opposed to a vague sense of God who is everywhere but really nowhere. 

This awareness is not some “add-on” nor corruption of true Christianity.  It is the essence of true Christianity and it is grounded in creation through the Word of God and the very incarnation of the Word of God.  Throughout the whole of Scripture we find this awareness being revealed and proclaimed.   

In today’s gospel (Mk. 12:28b-34) Jesus (who is the Word made flesh) specifically holds together the love of God and the love of neighbor in such a unity that the two cannot be separated.  Love, if it is to be true, must be present and real.  In the first Letter of John we have a developed reflection on this twofold commandment to love God and neighbor: Those who say, “I love God”, and hate their brothers and sisters, are liars: for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.  The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. (1 Jn. 4:20-21)

Love of God and neighbor, if it is to be real, must be present.  And where true love is, present is God.  The saints reveal this truth to us – not just through what they did but through their very lives transformed and reflective of a God not content to remain removed but continually seeking to be present.