Wednesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
A friend of mine and I were talking about food and somehow we ended up talking about Wendy’s. I had been telling her about how much I loved chocolate “Frosties”. She replied Frosties are 1.99 worth of love. Both of us were clearly enamored with this chocolate shake ice cream dessert.
It was ironic then that today’s readings are about love. The use of the word love in scripture and the use of the same word in the story above have very different meanings. In English then, we use love to mean a great many things, therefore making its meaning ambiguous. Similar ambiguity existed in lives of the people in Jesus’ day. This is why both Paul and Jesus use stark imagery to remind the people of the clarity with which they must live.
For Paul, the reminder came in the context of the Ten Commandments which he connects to Jesus’ greatest commandment. All of law could be summed up into “love one another.” This of course seems easy enough. Surely we all love one another all the time right? Well, for Paul it was not so clear. Hence the reminder “DO KNOW EVIL”. You can almost hear Paul shouting it.
Jesus is even more brazen in his clarity. If you go to him without first hating your father and mother then you can not follow him. Jesus of course is demanding we hate anyone. However he is demanding of us that we love God with our whole heart, mind, and soul above all other. Imagine, not just do no evil, but love me completely to the point that I am the center of your life.
My prayer for all of us today is that we step back and look at our own lives. How are Jesus and Paul calling us to make this law of love central to the way we live?
-Michael Montgomery