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-Last week, the Lord gave us a new commandment: Love one another as I love you.
-This signifies an unconditional love for all, even our enemies.
-This new commandment is one of the most difficult things Jesus tells us to do because there are no exceptions and it’s not based on merit. It requires us to acknowledge and respect the God-given dignity that is present in each and every person, without any conditions. This is something that can only be done with grace.
-Today’s gospel builds on the command we received last week. After giving us a new commandment, Jesus stresses how important it is to keep it.
-He says, “Whoever Loves me will keep my words and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.”
-These are very strong, clear words from Our Lord; the way we prove our love, the way we live our love for him is in keeping his words and commands. He does not say that loving him consists in praising his name or saying nice things about God or having great feelings about the Lord. Those are good and praiseworthy things. But the way we prove our love for God is by keeping his commands; putting our money where our mouth is.
-When we decide to disregard God’s commands, Jesus says that such behavior betrays a lack of love for him.
-Ok, so what does this mean for us on a practical level? How do these words of Christ need to be implemented in my life?
- first of all, what are the commands of God? Do I know what they are? Am I continually trying to deepen my knowledge of the moral life? Have I continued to grow in my faith and been seeking to incorporate the Scriptures and Church teaching into my personal, professional, and family life? Do I understand the implications of the 10 commandments and how they affect even the smaller aspects of my behavior? For example, most of us know that the 5th commandment tells us that we should not kill another person. Perhaps many of us would think of that command and move on thinking, well, I’ve never done that. Do we realize that drinking too much, eating too much, giving in to anger or rage or vengeful desires also violates this commandment? And these are just some of the ways that we can sin against this precept of God. Am I the first and last authority on how God’s law is interpreted in my life? Or do I humbly realize that God has given me the Catholic Church and her teaching to help me understand how to keep his words? We are seeing this problem grow, especially in American politics as more Catholic politicians boast of their faith while openly defying fundamental teachings of our Faith. It is easy to say you are a Christian; it’s really hard to live like one!
Learning God’s commands and keeping Jesus’ commands takes some work and personal initiative. We cannot just sit back and expect someone else to do it for us. Just like our physical health and financial future, we have to invest in it and make it a priority. The great news is that there are so many resources at our fingertips. This parish, and so many good people in it, are available to help us learn and deepen our faith. Today’s gospel encourages us to re-commit to learning Jesus words.
- Secondly, am I committed to keeping all of God’s words and commands? Jesus does not say that it is good enough to keep some of them or just the one’s we agree with. He doesn’t even say that it is enough to keep most of his commandments and words.
To love God is to embrace all of what he asks of us because all of it is based in his love and knowledge of us. No command of God is superficial or unnecessary. All of of them work together to help us return to him and live forever in heavenly happiness. God knows we are going to fail and fail often. That’s why he offers us confession to take away our sins so freely. But the desire to obey him, to conform ourselves to his words has to be present in our hearts. We cannot simply try to do the bare minimum to squeak by or even worse, try to change the words and commands of God into what pleases us, what is currently popular, or what keeps us comfortable and minimally challenged.
- Finally, do I realize that keeping Christ’s words and commands is necessary for salvation? Or do I think that they are simply one opinion among others?
- Here are some examples of where Catholics are tempted to reduce the words and commands of Christ to mere opinion or optional obedience. These are not offered as an accusation or a point of shame, but for reflection and encouragement to learn what our faith teaches about these areas and to see if our personal knowledge and belief are consistent. In our time, many choose to defy God’s truth as it relates to:
- Contraception and sterilization-
- Same-sex unions and activity
- Abortion
- Cohabitation and physical intimacy before marriage
- Embryonic Stem cell and fetal tissue research
- certain fertility treatments
- Attending Mass every Sunday
- receiving communion in the state of serious sin without first going to confession or receiving holy communion while openly defying or rejecting foundational Church doctrine.
Each of the items mentioned, deals with the words and commands of Christ in a serious, fundamental way. Some Catholics might deviate from one or more of them because they don’t know what the Church teaches or didn’t know that they were wrong. But to deliberately hold these views is inconsistent with a true love of Christ. Why? Because we are not keeping his words, his commands, and that is how we prove our love for Him. Even an unintentional ignorance of God’s commands should be avoided because it becomes an area of our life that is not yet transformed by Divine Love. Sin, even unintentional sin, always hurts us and others, whether we realize it or not.
The best news of all is that Christ constantly offers us grace and mercy. All we have to do is ask for it sincerely and we will receive forgiveness. Jesus is indeed calling us to a high standard but he promises to give us everything we need to meet that standard, knowing it brings out the best in us and leads to true and lasting happiness. If we choose to reject Jesus’ words or remain ignorant of his teaching, then, as hard as it is to hear, we are not loving him.
Let us be humble as we learn more about the words and commands of Christ. I know I have a lot of work to do and in fact, we all have work to do and that is ok. Jesus gives us the Church and the sacraments to get us there. So let us keep working on learning and living the words and commands of Jesus, knowing that when we do, we are not just keeping some stuffy laws or oppressive rules, we are loving him!
