Nov.2 Love

487doc.

Scripture: Lectionary 487: Romans 13:8-10. Psalm 112:1-2.4-5.9. Luke 14:25-33.

All the great saints of the past who are in the Bible ultimately come to the inspired conclusion that the greatest commandment is love of God, love of neighbor, and love of self. Actually they reduce everything to love. We have seen in commentaries that Isaiah does this, Jesus, too, and Moses; then the rabbis and the spiritual writers come to the same conclusion. In I John we learn that the best way to talk about God is to say “God is love! In Greek the best word for this love is “agape” and in Hebrew it is “hesed.”

Paul is our inspired writer and speaker for today and he states, “Love never does wrong to the neighbor, hence love is the fulfillment of the law (Torah or instruction). Paul goes on to say, “He who has loved his neighbor has fulfilled the law.”

The Psalms are prayers and they often help us to pray over and over about the meaning of the Scriptures for the day. When accompanied by music for the refrain and sometimes the verses then we are praying twice. Our Psalm for today, Psalm 112, is showing us how to love our neighbor and thus have an experience of God’s love for God is love. Love is actually shown in the psalm in a practical way as we meditate on the verses. To love one’s neighbor is to be merciful, kind, generous, gracious or thankful, just and concerned about helping those who are poor and hungry and homeless.

Jesus then gives us the supreme challenge of our love if we wish to be his faithful disciples. The paragraph is very demanding of us but enables us to share in the commandment of agape or perfect love. We sacrifice ourselves for the other; we detach ourselves from selfishness in our relationships; we give of our possessions freely and without a grudge. We go all the way to enter into the sufferings of the Lord, into his death, and thereby taste the fruit of love, Jesus’ resurrection. The bottom line in the portrayal of Jesus in Luke’s gospel is that we have great concern for the poor because we are so rich in Christ and his community of believers.

This section of Luke is among the more difficult ones in Luke and in the sayings of Jesus. We must ponder over with discernment what it means to take on this cost of discipleship; but in the end the commandment to love one another will give us the greatest of joys. Amen.