Hello Internet, I’m back. I apologize to any of my readers
for being silent for so long, but now I am going to try to write every week.
Today I am going to start what I call my Sunday series. I know today is Monday
but I will be talking about yesterday’s readings followed by a post every
Sunday. So, without further ado, let’s begin.
Brothers
and sisters:
Owe nothing to anyone, except to
love one another;
for the one who loves another has
fulfilled the law.
The commandments, “You shall not
commit adultery;
you shall not kill; you shall not
steal; you shall not covet, ”
and whatever other commandment
there may be,
are summed up in this saying,
namely,
“You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.”
Love does no evil to the neighbor;
hence, love is the fulfillment of
the law.
What you just was Sunday’s second reading from Romans
13:8-10. What I want to talk about are the first three lines. Owe nothing but
love. What does that mean? When we look at the Catholic Faith, the end goal is
really the perfection of Love which is to put the needs of others before our own.
As the Scriptures say,” No greater Love than this than for a man to give up his
life for his friends.” This doesn’t mean we have to die for them, at least not
physically. It means that we cannot place ourselves at the center of our own
existence.
St. Bernard
of Clairvaux wrote a number of discourses on love and in one of them he divides
love into four levels. The first is man loving man for man’s sake. This is a
selfish love since man places himself in the center. The second level is man
loving God for man’s sake. While better than the first level, this is still a
selfish love because we are only loving God because of what we can get from
Him. The third level is man loving God for God’s sake. This is selfless because
God has now been placed at the center of our love. The fourth level is the most
difficult for it is loving man for God’s sake. This requires us to love our
fellow man not because of what they are to us but because of what they are to
God: His sons and daughters who have been created in His image and likeness.
I want to
use this opportunity also to speak about how abortion and contraception are not
compatible with Love. God is Love. We have all heard that before. When God
loves us he gives us Life. I was sitting in Mass yesterday and during the
Homily the priest posed the question, “Can Love be sterile and still be
called Love?” He then said, “What if God said, ‘I’m contracepting today.’” Yes,
I was a little stunned when I heard that but as Father explained it, it made a
lot of sense. Imagine if God separated the Life giving property from his Love.
After confession we would be spiritually dead and there would be no hope of
heaven within the Eucharist, even tough God would still “love” us. The thing is
God doesn’t do that because He wants us to have life and have it abundantly.
Therefore when we Love we must also give life or at least be open to it.
Anyone who
does not love shall be treated as Christ says to treat the Gentiles and the tax
collectors from Sunday's gospel. They will be separate from the Body of Christ. Even though they are
separate God still wants them to have life, but they must choose it. We too, if
we are truly loving, should desire the same.
PS: Please comment if you have something to say. I would love to have discussion.
Test to see if comment goes through.
ReplyDeleteOK, I guess my comment will come through this time. Last time, it went awry.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see you back blogging. I hope that you had a terrific summer and that the new semester is going well for you. Best wishes for a successful school year.
I must say that your return comes with a BIG bang. You offer some very serious, heavy points of discussion.
At one time, I probably knew about St. Bernard's levels of love, but I hadn't thought of them in a LONG time. Thanks for the reminder. My high school's motto was "Men for others" (It hadn't gone coed yet) so I'm very familiar with the idea of not putting oneself always at center stage and try to act in accordance with that philosphy.
I'm guessing that you and I agree on the evils of abortion. For me, it becomes a question of determining when life begins. I believe that it begins at conception rather than some point along the way to birth. Abortion is murder. Nuff said.
Contraception offers more room for discussion. If I understand what you're saying, I'm inferring that you feel that every act of love must be open to the possibility of its giving life. If that is true, people who are sterile or are, for whatever reason, incapable of providing the possibility of life are unable to love. I cannot buy completely into that. To deny the ability of anyone to love seems, to me, to be a lack of love in itself. Indeed, God IS Love. Mankind's attempts to emulate Him are destined to fall short. I believe that abortion is murder and a far worse evil than contraception.
Once again, my first comment went off into the ether. It was much better than this one. Really. Try to imagine it.
OK, Let's just clarify one point. Contraception is opposite to Life. It prevents it, similar to how abortion stops it. We are actually told in Genesis that Contraception is illicit in the story of Judah and Tamar. Judah's second son married Tamar after his brother died, but since he did have children in his brother's name, he spread his seed on the ground before having relations with Tamar. This is a form of Contraception known as coitus interruptus. If we continue the story we see that God struck him dead for this action. Today Contraception exists in many forms but just because many of them seem subtler does not make them less wrong. Besides, one of God's first commands to man was "Be fruitful and multiply."
DeleteAs for those who suffer from being sterile or unable to have children are not suffering out of their own free will. Defects like these are a result of the fall, but many times they can be a test from the Lord. In scripture there are stories of several women who were sterile: Sarah, Rachel, Hannah. These women trusted in the Lord to provide and in the end he did provide them with the ability to have children: Isaac, Joseph, Samuel.
Some people however may never be able to reproduce, but that does not mean they cannot be open to life because the ability to give life does not exist solely in reproduction. Example: Adoption, Feed the Hungry, Heal the Sick, Be a Light to those who are Lost. By the way, there are the religious, and they don't reproduce. They give life through the distribution of the sacraments and through their prayers. What I am trying to say is Love requires us to be always open to life in all senses of the word.
Typo in Judah and Tamar story, when talking about his second son, I meant to say he did not want children in his brother's name.
DeleteI'm glad that you don't limit your definition of life-giving to reproduction. Both the corporal and spiritual works of mercy certainly qualify as "life-giving" and "life-affirming."
ReplyDeleteThere is one school of thought which states that the practice of contraception is acceptable so long as there is an overriding willingness to accept pregnancy should it occur. I'm not entirely familiar with the concept, but it sounds to my uneducated ear that practicing contraception is permissible unless it is practiced every time sexual contact occurs. I don't know how I feel about that.
According to the Church, contraception is not permissible at all. I don't understand what other purpose it could be used for outside of the prevention of pregnancy. This is why the Church stresses the importance of natural family planning.
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