Friday, March 28
For Christians, the term “word” has an Eternal significance. The Gospel of John opens:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.
Words convey sacraments, they convey truth, they set humankind apart from the rest of creation. Our ability to reason and choose with a formed conscience is unique among creatures. With the Fall, words also became tools Satan could use to draw us away from The Word. In today’s Gospel, Christ is asked what the greatest commandment is. He replies “The first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” In these few sentences, we find the entirety of our Christian duty: love God, love your neighbor, and love yourself—no qualifiers, no exceptions.
Yet, for centuries, Christians have tried to place limitations on these commandments: “Is this person really my neighbor?” “Am I my brother’s keeper?” “Don’t the actions of this person negate the need for me to love them?” We use words to rationalize away our obligation to love others, because love is difficult. But Jesus was very clear, repeatedly, throughout the Gospels that Love is the requirement and responsibility of Christians. He counters with the parable of the good Samaritan. He asks, “If you only love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.” He tells us that we are to love our enemies and neighbors alike so that they can know Christ by how well we love.
In his encyclical Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict XVI says that love of God and love of neighbor are inseparable. Love of neighbor “consists in the very fact that, in God and with God, I love even the person whom I do not like or even know…I learn to look on this other person not simply with my eyes and my feelings, but from the perspective of Jesus Christ. His friend is my friend…If I have no contact whatsoever with God in my life, then I cannot see in the other anything more than the other, and I am incapable of seeing in him the image of God. But if in my life I fail completely to heed others, solely out of a desire to be ‘devout’ and to perform my ‘religious duties,’ then my relationship with God will also grow arid. It becomes merely ‘proper,’ but loveless. Only my readiness to encounter my neighbor and to show him love makes me sensitive to God as well. Only if I serve my neighbor can my eyes be opened to what God does for me and how much He loves me.”
John 13:1 sets the scene of Jesus washing His disciples’ feet, “Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” He loved them by coming into the world humble and poor, He loved them by teaching them, He loved them by sharing meals, by performing miracles, and finally by giving Himself for their redemption. Even when they betrayed Him. Even when they hurt him. Even if they were tax collectors or Roman soldiers or leppers. He loved without qualifiers and He expects that from us.
Catherine Rider is a writer and environmental scientist who loves to reflect on the many ways that nature and art reveal God's truths to us.