Wednesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 487


 

Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

With Collect #40, (for charity) the Church prays that we might “think thoughts worthy and pleasing” to the majesty of God. 

Actions flow from thoughts. Thoughts are conceived in the womb of our attitudes, which must be holy places – like the temple of God, like the Virgin Womb of Mary.

God knows we have sinned in thought, word and deed; and yet God promises to restore our innocence. Herod’s Jerusalem may become the City of Simeon and Anna, who took the baby in their arms and welcomed him to the temple.

Saint Francis and his disciples often referred to the Gospel as the “Mirror of Perfection.” We use mirrors not to admire ourselves but to rate our appearance. Am I ready to face the world? Sometimes we discover imperfections. A woman checks her makeup; a man straightens his tie; I forgot to insert my Roman collar into the tabs of my shirt.

Gazing into the Mirror of Perfection we see Jesus, the Beauty of all Perfection, and our own sinful shortcomings. In today’s reading the Mirror urges us to “Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”

Who cannot discern his own shortcomings in those words? 

When the Lord says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” he is not asking us to do the impossible. You love yourself, don’t you? You might not do exactly what the doctor says, but you don’t jump off cliffs or drive in the left lane. You eat when you’re hungry and go to bed when you’re tired. You dress warm in winter. Love your neighbor with the same common sense.

For this command which I am giving you today is not too wondrous or remote for you. It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who will go up to the heavens to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may do it?” Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may do it?” No, it is something very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.

God’s word is good news because, with his spirit, we can do all things in Christ. We can even “love one another as I have loved you.”