Genuine obedience cannot be imposed. The root of “obedience” is the Latin verb obedire. Obedire doesn’t just mean to listen, it means to really listen so as to deeply hear what is being said.
According to Christ Himself, the first of the two Great Commandments is to love God with your entire being.1 And so, before it is anything else, to obey God is to love God. Because obedience is a choice made from love, there is nothing legalistic about it. So, contrary to a common misconception, true obedience is not compulsory compliance for fear of punishment.
Our reading from Sirach shows us that God respects our freedom, which derives from being made in God’s own image. At least in part, respecting your freedom means not shielding you from the consequences of your choices. This stands in contrast to the rather pagan concept of God getting angry at your slightest misstep and then actively and deliberately punishing you.
When we confess our sins, receive absolution, and fulfill our penance, the eternal punishment due our sins is taken away. But the natural consequences remain. The sacrament of penance, while it is given to heal, isn’t magic. Healing comes from repenting, which means making a commitment to change, “to sin no more and avoid whatever leads me to sin.”
God is good and always seeks your good. Our loving Father is even able to use the suffering that results when you screw up (again). We are sinners in the hands of a loving God! As Saint Paul wrote, you can’t begin to imagine “what God has prepared for those who love him.”2 So, the question for each of us is not “Does God love me?” It is, “Do I love God?” As in any relationship, love is best shown through actions rather than mere words.
This seems an important message as we stand on the threshold of the holy season of Lent. Let's be honest up front, in and of themselves your Lenten efforts and sacrifices will not make you holier. God’s grace is still needed. Far from being an effort to earn something from God or to place Him in your debt, practicing spiritual disciplines are simply tried and true ways of opening yourself to receive God's grace.
Found this on SlideServe- liked it
As for our Gospel, it is important to grasp that in His life and ministry Jesus never denigrates the Law. Instead, He positively extols it. Of course, He is the only person who has completely obeyed the Law both in letter and in spirit, thus fulfilling it.
This is the third of four Sundays during Year A of Sunday lectionary that the Church normally reads from the fifth chapter of Saint Matthew’s Gospel. Due to the start of Lent this Wednesday, this year it’s for only three weeks. We do this because this chapter is the heart of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. What we hear today are the antitheses.
The theses with which these teachings are contrasted arise from the Law itself. These take the form “You have heard it said” [thesis] “But I say to you” [antithesis]. With these, Jesus shows us that real obedience is more than mere compliance to an outwardly imposed set of rules. He makes obedience a matter of listening with your heart.
Saint Benedict’s rule begins with this exhortation: “Hearken, my son, to the precepts of the master and incline the ear of your heart.”3 This is just what the Lord teaches us to do today. This is just what the Lord teaches us to do today. Like the Bible, at the core of which are the Gospels, Saint Benedict's regula isn’t a rule book.4
What the Lord sets forth is a mode of being, the way of becoming who God created and redeemed you to be. “This is the way we may know that we are in union with him,” scripture teaches, “whoever claims to abide in him ought to live [just] as he lived.”5
As Catholics, we embrace the efficacy of rules and precepts. A good example of this are the Church's five precepts, which are given “to guarantee for the faithful the indispensable minimum in the spirit of prayer, the sacramental life, moral commitment and growth in love of God and neighbor.”6
What you must be careful not to do is to mistake means for ends. This is the fatal flaw of the scribes and Pharisees. What Christ gives us through His Church are proven means for realizing the end of loving God with your entire being by loving your neighbor as you love yourself.
As for a just love of self, you can selflessly love because you were first selflessly loved. “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.”7 At root, every sin is a failure to love. We acknowledge this in the Act of Contrition: “In choosing to wrong and failing to good, I have sinned against You, whom I should love above all things.”
Don’t make Lent a time either to annoy yourself in some arbitrary way or a time for self-driven self-improvement. Make it a time to open yourself to God- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Pray, fast, abstain, give to the poor, and serve others. Make it a time to heed the call made during the imposition of ashes: “Repent and believe the Gospel.”8
1 Matthew 22:37.↩
2 1 Corinthians 2:9.↩
3 Rule of Saint Benedict, Prologue.↩
4 Second Vatican Council. Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation [Dei Verbum], sec. 18.↩
5 1 John 2:5-6.↩
6 Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, sec. 431.↩
7 1 John 4:106.↩
8 Roman Missal. Ash Wednesday, Blessing and Distribution of Ashes.↩
No comments:
Post a Comment