The Word: the Call to Love

Sunday’s Readings:

1^st Reading – Leviticus 19:1-2,17-18

Responsorial – Psalm 103:1-2,3-4,8,10,12-13

2^nd Reading – 1 Corinthians 3:16-23

Gospel – Matthew 5:38-48

            Last Tuesday, His Holiness Pope Francis reminded us, “The Word of God cannot be given as a proposal.” The Gospel is not a recommendation! There is nothing conditional in today’s readings. The Lord says, “Be ye holy, because I the Lord your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). Likewise, Christ says, “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). God does not say this is something He would like us to do, this is a command. We must, with the help of grace, strive towards spiritual perfection.

            What does this perfection look like? Love.

            In Leviticus, God tells the Israelites that they “shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart, but reprove him openly lest thou incur sin through him” (Leviticus 19:17). People like to pretend that the Law of the Old Testament was brutal and oppressive, but this is a clear example of just the opposite. Not harboring resentment against someone close to you can be difficult especially if they have wronged you – any sibling knows this. But God commands us to love the other person and gently correct their sinful behavior instead of satisfying our desire for retribution in kind.

            Jesus takes this one step further in his fulfillment of the Law: “You have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thy enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you” (Matthew 5:43-44). Unfortunately, all too often we allow this teaching to lose its novelty and become a droll epigram we wear on t-shirts without living in our lives. We forget how radical Christ’s words are! It’s hard enough to love our neighbors. Loving our enemies would be impossible without the help of grace.

            This love distinguishes the Christian. Anyone can be kind to people who people who are kind to them, “do not also the heathens this?” (Matthew 5:47). Through Christ alone can we love those who hate and curse us.

            It is important to remember that Jesus does not require us to love each other simply because it is hard. We are called to love because of the dignity of the human person. “Know you not,” writes St. Paul, “that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). As temples of God, we are invested we incredible value. That is why “if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy” (1 Corinthians 3:17).

            According to à Lapide, “the Apostle is speaking mainly of the corruption that comes through the teaching of false doctrine, through pride, through envy, or the formenting of schism.” In our “civilized cultures we like to think that violence is the worst thing you can do to someone. It is not. Christ tells us, “Be not afraid of them who kill the body” (Luke 12:4). Rather, the temple of God is profaned by the spread of heresy. It is corrupted by sin. It is eroded by a culture that normalizes sexual perversion and that hates Christianity.

            Therefore, this love that we are called to as part of being perfected in Christ, does not just mean being a “nice” person. Christian love means that we “give to him that asketh of thee and from him that would borrow of thee turn not away” (Matthew 5:42). It means turning the other cheek when struck. It means not just fulfilling your duty, like when the Romans would force Jews to carry their equipment for a mile, it means exceeding your duty – as my Douay Rheims translation says, going the “other two” (Matthew 5:41).

It also means being firm in the truth. Letting someone live in a state of sin so as not to offend them is not love, it is cowardice. As Christians, we are called to lovingly correct people to save them from sin.

            Neighbors and enemies. Both were made in the image of God. God “maketh his son to rise upon the good and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).

            In order to be “holy” and “perfect,” we must first love. Though we have the examples of the saints of two millennia, our greatest example of this love is God Himself. He is “merciful and gracious… slow to anger and abounding in kindness” (Psalm 103:8).

            Christianity is not a comfortable religion. Conventional wisdom rejects Christ’s teaching on love. It tells us that we should hurt those who hurt us. It tells us that it is ok to take advantage of people. It tells us that abortion is a right, homosexuality is an acceptable lifestyle, and helping someone kill themselves is letting them die with “dignity.” Fortunately, “the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God” (1 Corinthians 3:19).

Deus Vult!