Love God, Keep the Commandments

The Sixth Sunday of Easter
Today’s Readings: [Click here]

Jesus tells us so beautifully today: If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (Jn 14:15) You probably also recall his explanation in Matthew’s gospel:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. (Mt 22:37-40)

It sounds so simple: love God, love your neighbor. Problem is, sometimes we tend to filter our attitudes and behaviors through a distorting prism—so what we might consider as loving may not be so loving in God’s eyes.

There was this guy, and it was all he could do not to slap that boy. What a mouthy little twerp! He’d heard the kids fighting in the alley. What a racket! So he went out, pulled them apart, held them at full arm span distance from each other. Then he carefully explained to them how you share a ball and a glove. He actually patted himself on the back for being so patient with them. Then what gall! One of the boys actually had the nerve to ask if they could play in his yard. Very politely, he told them no, that would not be possible. All the while, he wondered who were this kid’s parents to let him be so rude to even ask that! Then the boy almost spat out the words when he said, “How do you know about sharing a glove when you keep your big fat green grass yard all to yourself?” Yeah, it was all he could do not to slap that boy.

Funny, isn’t it? We want to believe that we’re pretty good at loving God and neighbor, as Jesus commanded. We want God to always be forgiving and generous with us—even though maybe we aren’t quite so inclined to be so with others. It would serve us right if God were only as generous with us as we are with other people. But as it turns out, God always offers his blessings and graces, his mercy and forgiveness, his spectacular generosity before we even ask for them—and then always more than we could have imagined. If only we could imitate his example and keep his model of loving generosity before our eyes…

If we had to depend just on ourselves, we could easily get discouraged at our human weakness and failures. There’s a great word to describe it: double-mindedness. We really want to do the right thing, but when push comes to shove, we don’t. It’s like what’s on the inside and what’s on the outside are disconnected.

If it’s any consolation, even the greatest saints experienced the same thing. Look at Peter who vowed to stand with Christ to the ends of the earth, but took no time at all to deny him three times.

Fortunately, we Christians do not have to rely solely on ourselves. We’ve got God to help us. In fact, during this sacred and privileged Easter season, we celebrate the mystery and power of God that can easily do what appears to be humanly impossible. If God can and will raise the dead, he can and will rescue us from our far lesser burdens.

God the Father, of course, is invisible to us in our present realm. God the Son continues his reign in heaven until the Last Day when he promises to return to earth. So it is God the Holy Spirit who is doing most of the heavy lifting in our soul these days.

The Holy Spirit’s work for the most part takes place in our subconscious. His grace operates to purify our instincts, and then to redirect and rededicate them, so they better align with God’s will… with God’s commandments. As we allow the Spirit to refashion our conscience and our will, our inner self and our outward attitudes and behaviors begin to come together, to become one and the same—and best of all, united with God’s will for us.

In other words, it is the Holy Spirit’s job to take care of the thorny problems in our life. All we have to do is cooperate!

So to repeat, Jesus said: If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And of course, that would include not just the two Great Commandments, but also the Ten Commandments. We all know the rules. You shall do no work on the Sabbath. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. In fact, not only do we know them, we embellish them! We multiply them! Then we judge those who fail to abide by them. We blame people with AIDS for their tragic condition. We condemn the incest victim who aborts her father’s baby. We jail the prostitute who goes after the politician’s wealth. And of course, we’re so sure that we would never fall prey to the human weaknesses that lead others to fail in living up to God’s commandments.

But no. It’s got to be something else. How come Jesus insisted on breaking the rules? Why did he heal on the Sabbath? Why did he accept the woman caught in adultery? Why did he forgive the murderer and the robber? Didn’t he know the commands of God? Shouldn’t he have stood for law and order?

I think that these twenty centuries later, Jesus still weeps over us. We have not yet learned compassion for the old woman bent double from eighteen years in spiritual bondage. We haven’t yet learned to touch the leper with healing hands. We have yet to offer alternatives to those who turn to crime because they can’t house and feed their children. We have not yet learned that there can be no justice when there is no compassion… that there can be no healing without risking. We won’t let the little boy who’s not completely satisfied with our stupid little morality lesson play in our yard.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Jesus taught us that sometimes loving him means breaking the rules. Love must supersede the law. Justice and peace must flow like a river. Let our prayer today be that the Holy Spirit will touch our hearts and grant us the compassion of his healing touch as we reach out to our sisters and brothers in God’s holy name.