LOVERS OR LAWYERS? (by Rev. James McTavish)
In the gospel of today Jesus is asked “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” A challenging question as the Jewish Law contained 613 precepts. Jesus goes to the essential; “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” With so many rules and regulations around Jesus reminds us that it is all about love. To love the widow and the orphan is not a rule or regulation but will flow from a heart full of love. Going to Church every Sunday or to go to the sacrament of reconciliation will not be merely an external obligation when it springs from love. The Sunday mass is a moment to encounter face to face the one we say we love and to listen to him.
Imagine someone saying he was in love but then having difficulty to meet his beloved for a meal together just once a week! We would question of he really was in love! Or someone loving another he said that she never made a mistake, was always perfect and it was always the fault of the other. We would be a little suspicious as to whether she was really loving if she was not able to recognise her mistakes, to ask forgiveness for her faults and failings. To recognise our faults is a beautiful way of loving ourselves, of loving our limitations and weaknesses. In asking forgiveness we are also loving others and loving God. Sometimes we need to examine our hearts and see if they really contain love. As the psalmist says “He so flatters himself in his mind that he knows not his guilt”. How is my heart full of love?
An example may help us to see how our Christian faith becomes alive when we see our behaviour through the optic of love. At the moment there are campaigns to help avoid drinking excessive alcohol especially binge drinking. This can be conceived as an external rule only imposed against my “freedom”.
Let us examine the excessive consumption of alcohol in the light of love – love of self, neighbour and of God. Getting drunk is to disrespect our own body, to not love it. Our body is sacred, a gift from God, a temple of the Holy Spirit. We can believe that it is OK as no one else suffers. A visit to any Hospital Emergency room on a Friday or Saturday night would stop one saying that so easily. Many innocent people suffer the consequences of other people’s drunkenness. How many car accidents and incidents of violence have their root at least in a part to alcohol abuse. Even if the alcohol is consumed at home with no apparent ills, what can one say about the cost involved? Couldn’t at least some of that money be better spent on other things? However we don’t want to become killjoys and prudence is required – even St Paul encouraged Timothy to drink some wine and surely even Jesus and his disciples enjoyed a glass or two at Cana. What is to be avoided is consumption in excess such that one loses control of reason and instead of dominating it the alcohol comes to dominate the person.
How different when we look through the optic of love at our lives. When we see the world with eyes of love it is easy to understand many things. Love gives clarity in complex situations. We cannot accept destruction of human embryos or euthanasia because they both involve destruction of human life.
Once in an a radio programme which was supporting abortion a 15 year old girl rang up, unconvinced by many false arguments that had been presented and stated so clearly that she did not agree with abortion because it involved the destruction of innocent human life. Love gives us a clear vision about what is right and wrong.
Let us ask Jesus to be more filled with his love. To help us not be mere followers of the law, doing the minimum possible but instead to give us big hearts that go for the maximum Jesus help us to love you more and more.
Jesus wants lovers not more lawyers.
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