Memorial of Saint Charles Lwanga and companions

As we celebrate the feast of the martyrs Saint Charles Lwanga and his companions, Jesus teaches us the fundamental principle of Jewish, Christian and Muslim doctrine:

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.

Saint Mark tells us the opponents of Jesus dared to ask him no more questions. He had proved beyond doubt that his teachings were identical to Jewish aspirations. If they still opposed him, they opposed their own most cherished beliefs.

That is often the problem with war, confrontations and arguments. As we demonize our opponents, regarding them as enemies rather than friends with differing opinions, we inevitably become like our enemies.

Opposing lawless terrorists we break our own laws; to overcome torturers, we torture. We kill killers in our federal and state prisons despite the Fifth Commandment of the Decalogue which many would enshrine in public places.

But many Christians dismiss this command of Jesus as impossible. “How can I love God if I can’t see him? I’ll just try to love people; at least I can see them. And God loves me anyway; he doesn’t need anything from me.”

This brand of humanism – focusing exclusively on Jesus’ second command while ignoring the duty of worship – usually proves to be a fool’s errand. It devolves into white bread blandness, a general regard for the neighbor who is sufficiently like oneself and an assumption that “people are all the same, regardless of their religion, race or ethnicity.”
When humanism attempts to do good it projects its own needs onto others. The recent invasion of Haiti by adoption prospectors might be a case in point. Since Americans abort babies, thus closing the orphanages, when we discover a shortage of the little darlings we suppose that we can take them from abroad. The Haitians shouldn’t mind losing the babies, we suppose, especially since they’re going to enslave many of them with their own peculiar institutions.

Reverence for God would teach us reverence for the poor who may be needy but retain their dignity and their humanity. They may be like us in many ways but there are some important differences that we do not expect.

Worship of God would also teach us, by virtue of penance, suspicion about our own motives and a greater willingness to see beyond our selfish aspirations.

The dual command of Jesus should open our eyes each morning and lay us to bed at night. It is our principle, privilege and pleasure. Like the Jews, we should:

Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest. Bind them at your wrist as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead.
Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:6-9)