When Saint Francis made the long journey from Assisi to Rome in the year 1209, and headed to the Lateran Basilica to present his rule, we know that one of the reasons it wasn’t initially accepted by the Holy Father, Pope Innocent III, is the fact that it was too long. He asked Francis, after giving him an informal, and oral approval of the rule, to trim it down to something less arduous to read, let alone to live! Thank-you Pope Innocent III! This he did, and from twenty-four chapters, he shortened what is now the approved rule of the Friars Minor to twelve chapters which is half the original length.
You know who else hated long sets of “rules”? Jesus! In the sense that, he seemingly narrowed down, what had become hundreds and hundreds of little rules all of which splintered off from the main Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, to two basic commandments: Love God with all that is in your power, and love your neighbour as you love yourself. Jesus assured his followers that if we keep those two commandments we would be covering the entire “Law and the Prophets”.
That said, in today’s gospel we are given to understand that Jesus’ interlocutors took that instruction to mean that now, that “long” list of Ten Commandments is no longer necessary. Why keep ten, if two can suffice? While at first glance that seems pretty reasonable, we also immediately realize that the two must obviously incorporate, rather than do away with, the Ten original commandments.
To make it clear enough with no room for debate, Jesus is asserting two things in today’s gospel reading; He denies having an intention to remove the Law, and he affirms that He came to fulfil it.
And what exactly is the fulfilment of the law, and what was its purpose? Answering that question gives us the reason why the true love of God and neighbour will only reinforce, or rather, to use Jesus’ word, will “fulfill” the Commandments.
Saint Augustine pointed out that: “The fulfilment of the Law is love, which the Lord hath given in sending His Holy Spirit.”
So Christ fulfills the Law, through the power of the Holy Spirit, by and through his love. In other words, as we seek to imitate Christ, no man who loves can steal from another, or disrespect or hate his parents, or covet another’s wife. Hence, if we love, if it be true love, we too can and will be fulfilling the entire law. This is why Saint Paul reminds us that if we possessed all spiritual gifts and the strongest faith in God, yet had not love within us, we would actually have nothing so that it all hinges on love. Yet again, it seems easy to remember these two commandments of loving God and man, yet again we beg the question: what is true love? And yet again, our beloved Saint Paul will pull through for us with some wonderful highlights of what it does and doesn’t do. That’s the first major point, it’s about doing something, more than feeling something, yet sometimes the two intermingle, but it is not so much emotion driven as much as it is a conscious decision. St Paul paints the picture in this way: “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” 1 Cor 12
With that as our backdrop, and hoping to achieve that true version of love in our lives, and in order to vivify this true love and keep it more consistently present in our lives, we need to cultivate, nurture and strengthen it in the crucible of prayer. Why do I say ‘crucible’? Definition: “situation of severe trial, or in which different elements interact, leading to the creation of something new. Eg, 'Their relationship was forged in the crucible of war'". This is exactly what prayer is – difficult! At times, arduous. Yet that is the battlefield in which we wrestle with our vices and try to give birth to our virtues, as we allow our Eternal Lover to shed light on who we are. It is there that we learn to love.
Therefore, if we wish to grow in true love, and because we are almost at the midway point of our Lenten journey, let us remember once again the three essentials: prayer, fasting and mercy.
Saint Peter Chrysologus reminds us:
“There are three things, my brethren, by which faith stands firm, devotion remains constant, and virtue endures. They are prayer, fasting and mercy. Prayer knocks at the door, fasting obtains, mercy receives. Prayer, mercy and fasting: these three are one, and they give life to each other.
Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. Let no one try to separate them; they cannot be separated.”
Have I been committing myself to acts of mercy this Lent? Have I been fasting in unison with my prayers? What have I been praying for? Have I been praying? Lent is the time in which we deepen our prayer life and discipline ourselves to achieve that end, for if we pray, we will be able to love. If we love, we will have mercy, and that mercy will make our fasting powerful which along with prayer summons the attention of the Creator, our Loving God and Father and miracles begin happening, but be warned— What you ask for yourself make sure you grant to others. If we ask for mercy while not granting it to others we mock God, and God will not to be mocked.
We know that Saint Francis was big on all three of these vital elements which fortify the spiritual life and intensify our relationship with the Almighty: prayer, fasting and mercy. He prayed in ways we can’t even fathom in today’s world. Sometimes we have trouble sitting still for ten minutes let alone go up into the mountains for forty days to pray and fast, yet he did this several times throughout the year. When it came to the marginalized, he especially tended to the homeless and society’s discarded ones, alongside the exiled lepers who were confined to their colonies. He loved and worked hard to gather supplies and help for those people. Hence, he was a a master at extending mercy. Is it any surprise to us that the Almighty would adorn his body with the wounds of Christ as a sign of how pleased he was with his beloved saint? Lest we lose heart at such a high bar to inspire us, let us begin (or, continue), with tiny steps, little gestures of change in the right direction. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is our sainthood.
As we go on through Lent, to recap, let us remember that the law can be fulfilled if we love and that we will love better, if we embrace prayer, fasting and mercy more wholeheartedly and consistently like the great saints and of course, like the Queen of All Saints, the Blessed Virgin Mary who did these things in manner so perfect and pleasing to God, to whom She entrusted her whole life’s journey.
May God bless you in this endeavour as you try to do the same.
Add comment
Comments