Wednesday of Week 31 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Romans 13:8-10

Paul continues his practical advice to the Romans.  The reading may be very short, but its message should be engraved deeply on the heart of every person—Christians and non-Christians alike.  What is striking in this passage is that God or Jesus is not mentioned at all, but both are clearly understood to underlie the statements.

Paul says that the only debt we should incur with others is the debt of love. Because in loving another person, we are fulfilling all the requirements of the law.

The love owed to others is the one debt that can never be paid off.  No matter how much we have loved, we are still under an obligation to keep on loving.  And this love is not only extended to fellow Christians, but must include every other person—including those who wish us harm.  And in doing so, we are not only fulfilling the requirements of the Mosaic Law, but of all law.  If in upholding a particular law, I would violate the law of love, then that law cannot be obeyed.

So, says Paul:

The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; you shall not murder; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

In the original quotation from Leviticus, ‘neighbour’ meant a fellow-Israelite, but here it is extended to include every other human person, as we see in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Jesus actually pushed that commandment even further.  At the Last Supper he gave his disciples what he called a ‘new commandment’ when he said:

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. (John 15:12)

Here the level of love is extended to match the love of Jesus which led him to “empty himself” and sacrifice his life for every single one of us.

The commandment also presumes that we love ourselves.  Probably, most of us feel that we do, and even feel guilty about being selfish and self-centred.  But that is not real self-love.  Real self-love means the total recognition and acknowledgement of ourselves as we are, including both strengths and weaknesses.  Most of us try to hide our real selves by hiding behind masks and creating an image that will impress others.  That is not a sign of real love of self.  But without a healthy self-love, there is a lack of inner security making it difficult to reach out in love to others.

Paul says that that “love is the fulfilling of the law” because genuine loving can cause no harm to brothers and sisters.  Keeping the law in a legalistic fashion can do a lot of harm.  This is what Jesus had against the Pharisees—they put the Law before love.

Paul’s teaching reminds one of St Augustine’s famous dictum: “Love and do what you like” or St Paul’s own saying, “Love covers a multitude of sins”.  If one’s actions are motivated by a genuine love and concern for the well-being of others, then we cannot go wrong.  A truly loving person is not going to commit adultery, is not going to kill or hurt, is not going to steal, or to cast covetous glances at what belongs to another.

The word for ‘love’ used by Paul is agape—a special kind of love.  It can be defined as “a passionate desire for the well-being of the other”.  It is a unilateral love in the sense that it is given and continues to be given even when there is no response, or even if it is rejected.  It is the love that God extends to all created things and God’s agape is the source of all love in us.  And wherever there is agape, there is God, because God is agape.  That is why Paul can say that all the requirements of our faith are fulfilled, if all our words and actions are motivated by that agape.

Even in our church life, people can become very legalistic and set a lot of store by laws and regulations with very little love being shown.  Many put the Ten Commandments ahead of the law of love.  Yet as Jesus showed with the Pharisees, it is possible to keep the Law without a shred of love.  One can keep many of the Commandments—especially those expressed negatively—by doing absolutely nothing!

But it is only through the love which we show for all those around us that the quality of our Christian life is measured.  It is only by that love that our union with God is manifested.  Observing laws, however exalted, is not enough.  And doing nothing is of no help either. Love involves a constant and unconditional reaching out to all, friends and enemies, young and old, Christian and non-Christian, educated and illiterate, fellow country people and foreigners, close relatives and perfect strangers.

And as has been said, it is striking that God or Jesus are not mentioned in the whole passage.  But the message is clear—I cannot love God and bypass my brothers and sisters, including those most obnoxious. It is no use spending hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament if I am not also constantly reaching out to find and serve Jesus in those around me.  It is not difficult to talk to Jesus in the tabernacle.  It can be much more difficult with some—an unreasonable boss or a rebellious teenager or an aggressive drug addict.

Finding Christ there and responding to him in such situations is the real test.  At the same time, we thank God for the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament as it is a wonderful environment for prayer and contemplation, and to reflect on the degree of loving others in our daily lives.

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Wednesday of Week 31 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Luke 14:25-33

Luke’s Gospel is noteworthy for its extremes. On the one hand, it shows the radical and uncompromising demands that Jesus makes on those who would be his followers and, at the same time, emphasises as none of the other Gospels do, the gentleness and compassion of Jesus for the sinful and the weak. Both pictures have always to be kept simultaneously in view and they are in no way contradictory. Today and tomorrow we will see both of these images of Jesus back to back.

In today’s passage we see Jesus, as was often the case, surrounded by a huge crowd of people. They are full of enthusiasm and expectation, but Jesus very quickly pulls them up short. He says:

Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.

This is a very shocking demand, especially for a society where people’s whole lives were centred on their families.  Luke is alone in asking that even the wife, too, be abandoned, but this is just an example of the totality of our commitment to following Jesus.

However, we have to make two qualifications.  First, the word ‘hate’ is a Semitic expression not to be taken literally.  It could not be so taken, as the whole of Jesus’ teaching is based on love, not only of blood relatives, but of strangers and even enemies.  It is rather a dramatic way of saying that anyone who puts any person, even those closest to them, before total commitment to Christ and his mission is not ready to be a disciple. There can be no compromise here—it is all or nothing.

Second, we also have to say that Jesus is not recommending a literal abandonment of one’s family. That would be highly irresponsible and a violation of that commandment of universal love. But it is clear that, for those who want to be part of Jesus’ work, they have to give themselves completely and unconditionally.  And where there is a choice between the clear call of the gospel and personal attachments, they have to let go of the latter.

It is important for the crowd to hear this. Following Christ is not just like football fans stalking their favourite player or ‘groupies’ following a pop star from city to city.  There is a price to be paid, and they need to know that there is one, and what it is. That price is the cross, a level of sacrifice and suffering—perhaps even of one’s life—that each one must be prepared to undergo for the sake of the gospel and the building of the Kingdom.

So, to illustrate this Jesus gives two examples. The first is of a man who had a plan to build a tower. Before he started, he made sure that he had all the necessary resources. Otherwise he might find that, after laying the foundations, he could not finish the work and he would become the laughing stock of others. “Ha! Ha! He began to build what he could not finish.”

In the second example Jesus speaks of a king with 10,000 soldiers who finds he is going to war with another king who has 20,000. If he thinks there is no way he can win, he will send an emissary to negotiate the best peace terms he can get. Similarly, says Jesus, no one can be a disciple of his who is not ready to let go of everything he has.

Following him has to be absolute and unconditional. How many of the crowd listening were ready for that?  How many of us are ready for that?  Am I ready?  What are the things I am clinging to?  What are the things I cannot let go of?  And why is that?

To be a disciple of Jesus means being absolutely free.  It reminds one of Francis of Assisi leaving his family and taking off all his rich and fancy clothes to replace them with a beggar’s rags, and being filled with a tremendous sense of joy and liberation.  Do I want to be a disciple of Jesus?  To what extent?  Am I ready to pay the price he asks?

The paradox, of course, is that once I pay the price, I will get so much in return. Just ask St Francis or St Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) about this.

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