Optional Memorial of Saint Albert the Great, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Lectionary: 494

But now, Lady, I ask you,
not as though I were writing a new commandment
but the one we have had from the beginning:
let us love one another.
For this is love, that we walk according to his commandments;
this is the commandment, as you heard from the beginning,
in which you should walk.

 A s we approach the end of the liturgical year and a series of readings from Revelation, we hear several of the shortest New Testament writings: Jude, Philemon, and the second and third letters of Saint John. Although very brief, we treasure these "second generation" writings as clues to the life and spirit of the earliest Christian church. We are the same people with many of the same concerns, questions, and confident hope. 

Saint John addressed his third letter to a "Lady," apparently a local Church which he knew as the Bride of Christ. The earliest writings of the Church, found in the writings of Paul and Mark's gospel, refer to Jesus as the bridegroom, who obviously has a bride. And she is the Church. When Saint John reminded his Lady friend, "Let us love one another!" he reminded the congregation of their essential bonds to the Lord and one another. 

We should love our church as spouses love one another; we should love one another as the children of one father and mother, because our Father is God and our mother is the Church, or Mary the Mother of Jesus.  

The thing I notice about family is that we don't choose one another. Parents give brothers and sisters to their children, and the children are not given a choice about their siblings. I can remember my Dad saying, "Here is your sister!" as he and Mom returned from the hospital. (They didn't ask me about it! Or if they did, my response had to be of boundless delight.) 

Frankly, as I have known, loved, and watched married couples, I see they're also stuck with one another. They might have chosen one another in the beginning, but that was a long time ago, and the choice was made by much younger, more foolish people. A lot has changed since then but they're still together. Still making it work and still getting acquainted. At some point in every marriage, one wakes up and says, "Who is that stranger sleeping in my bed?" 
And marriage begins anew. 

"Lady..., let us love one another..., this is the commandment, as you heard from the beginning, in which you should walk." We love our brothers and sisters, our husbands and wives, in obedience, because we love the God who has given us to one another. 

Toward the end of his life, as Saint Francis wrote his last Testament in an effort to address some intractable problems in the community, he said, "The Lord gave me brothers." 

He had not asked for them. He had set out in solitude to live with, and be like, Jesus Christ. He had found escape from his family's luxurious life, enormous joy, and astonishing freedom in the poverty of Jesus. As he shared that good news with Assisi, he was astonished to find that many young men -- and later, young women -- insisted on joining him. He could only believe, "the Lord gave me brothers." 

That's been my experience of life among the friars. I might not have chosen these men as friars; I might have preferred that some not remain in the seminary or among us. But I wasn't asked; I was told, "Here is your brother." The choice -- if you call it that -- is to accept, respect, love, and understand them as they are. Parishioners are given the same invitation, as are Catholics in general, and then Christians. 

But -- Make no mistake! -- our bonds are deeper than that of biological families. Because we eat the flesh of the Lord Jesus and drink his blood, our true family is the enfleshed being of the Lord. Our biological brothers and sisters are family insofar as we are like the family of Jesus. Similarly, marriage is the perfect love of Jesus for his Church, and the covenant of husband and wife is like that of Jesus and his Church. (Not vice versa.)

For this is love, that we walk according to his commandments;

this is the commandment, as you heard from the beginning,

in which you should walk.

And his commandments are not difficult, unless we make them so. As we walk in the Spirit of Jesus, having surrendered our egos, our destinies, and our lives to the Lord, his commandment to love one another is not burdensome.