Thursday of the Fifth Week of Easter

Lectionary: 288

As the Father loves me, so I also love you. 

Remain in my love. 

If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, 

just as I have kept my Father's commandments 

and remain in his love. 

Given the chaotic history of the ancient near-east, with its political and military turmoil, periodic natural catastrophes, and continual migrations, "the law" seemed like a gift of God. The fact that strangers of different races, ethnicities and languages could meet and deal and agree with one another despite their differences -- and do it with pleasure! -- could only be divine inspiration!

Artisans in search of work, scholars looking for pupils, mercenaries looking for war and merchants with exotic foreign goods: all carried legal ideas and traditions with them from place to place. Laws that worked in Mesopotamia might be useful in Egypt if the Pharaoh and his priests liked it, promoted it and could enforce it. Even the gods -- the irenic ones, anyway -- supported reasonable laws fairly applied.

The Jews in particular loved their Law of Moses. When their two kingdoms were destroyed by foreign invaders and they were driven from their homeland they took "God's Law" with them, adapting it to home and synagogue. They would be a stateless nation, scattered from India to Spain and North Africa, identifiable by their peculiar customs. If the alien authorities -- by succession: Assyrian, Babylonian, Greek, Seleucid or Roman  -- ignored their odd customs the Jews clung to them all the more fervently. Faithful obedience to God's law ensured spiritual freedom of the mind and heart under economic and political oppression. Every verse of Psalm 119, the longest of the psalms, celebrates a facet of God's fascinating, beautiful law with gratitude and joy.

However, the word law takes on an entirely different dimension when Jesus speaks of it, especially for any citizen of the twenty-first century. We think of laws as agreements among members of a society within a social contract. They can be ignored, forgotten, suspended, cancelled or altered to fit changing times and circumstances. Most people do not regard "man-made" laws as the will of God, though they might agree that God prefers a well-ordered, law-abiding society. Infractions of the law may be punished, but that depends upon the criminal's wealth and connections and the judge's severity. Laws usually favor the status quo, and reward the class who created and imposed them. Although everyone agrees they should be imposed equally, we know they never were and never will be.

When we hear Jesus speak of keeping my commandments, we don't expect the plasticity of the social contract. Rather, we accept his authority with the same traditional joy and gratitude of  our Jewish ancestors. If his "commands" don't have the specificity of the Mosaic Law, much less the technical details of secular codes, they lead us directly and with all the more assurance into the heart of Our Father.

"Remain in my love!" Jesus commands. From the first chapter of John's gospel we hear that happy invitation, "Come and see." Obedience to Jesus' command entails living within his house, under his guidance and protection. His house is a place of healing, even a hospital, rehab center and rest home. As in any hospital, there are rules of courtesy, compliance and cooperation, as well as honesty about our sad condition. We come to this house in all humility to learn how to belong to Christ, and not to show others how they should live.

It is a house of Joy for all people. We are glad to be here.