Memorial of Saint John Neumann, Bishop

Lectionary: 208

Spring, Summer, Fall

This is the message you have heard from the beginning:
we should love one another,

Children, let us love not in word or speech
but in deed and truth.

Sometimes Christian preachers and teachers water down the Lord’s command to “Love one another” by turning it into a global command, “Love everybody!” That is the same as “love nobody.” As the philosopher Linus Van Pelt once said, “I love mankind; it’s people I can’t stand.”

When the New Testament authors speak of love for one’s brother or sister, they are speaking specifically of fellow Christians. Love begins in the Church. That is where we learn the art of loving our fellow human beings with its wonder and its challenge.

But the Church is the one place many self-described Christians would rather not go! They often insist they believe in God. They might even say they pray to Jesus, but they see no connection between belief in God, love for Jesus and church membership. They are often downright cynical about their fellow Christians.

As a Franciscan I have learned to appreciate the challenge and the blessing of living with others. I cannot say, “It’s easy”’ but I can say, “I would have it no other way.” I must often remind myself I joined this community to save my soul, not to judge, challenge or change these men. If anything, I should be changed by them. 

My ministries in the hospital and this blog are only expressions of my faith, hope and love. Those virtues, such as they are, flow from my life in the community, where I acquire these virtues. That is where I learn to accept the foibles, tics, smells and obnoxious habits of other human beings without quarreling; and where I discover (to my horror) that they accept mine!

Saint John challenges the romantic Christian who thinks she can know the Lord without a church, 

“If you do not love the brother you can see, how can you love the God you cannot see?”