Homily for Thursday, 11 September 2014– Ferial

Thursday of the 23rd week in Ordinary Time

Readings of the day: 1 Corinthians 8:1b-7, 11-13; Psalm 139:1b-3, 13-14ab, 23-24; Luke 6:27-38

What is the most loving action in a particular situation? What is the action that will build up an individual or community? These are the questions that our readings today invite us to consider.

St. Paul faces a divided Corinthian Christian community in our first reading today. Some Christians in Corinth would not eat meat if it had been “sacrificed to idols.” For others, this was not a concern. St. Paul seems to agree that there is no moral problem in eating meat, even “sacrificed to idols,” because pagan idols are not gods. There is only one God, and so sacrifices to false gods are meaningless. But then St. Paul accommodates those whose “conscience” is too “weak” to withstand this level of moral nuance: “Therefore, if food causes my brother to sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I may not cause my brother to sin.”

Why does St. Paul reach this conclusion? I think this can only be out of love for the Corinthians; for the Church. St. Paul shows us love that goes beyond the mere legal or moral minimum. He shows us love that goes beyond obligation. He shows us love that goes beyond the reciprocal relationship of “I will do this for you if you do that for me.” St. Paul’s love is not merely sentimental. It is for the good of the people he serves; for building up of community and human relationships.

Jesus invites us to this same kind of love in our Gospel reading today. Jesus’ love is a love that seems difficult for us to emulate: “Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you… Do to others as you would have them do to you… Be merciful, just as also your Father is merciful… Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.”

Nowhere in our Gospel does Jesus oblige us to love our enemies; to love those who hate, curse, or mistreat us (or, perhaps appropriately on this anniversary of September 11, 2001, those who commit terrorist acts against our country). Jesus does not oblige us to be merciful, or not to judge or condemn, or to forgive people who have wronged us. If this were an obligation, our love would be reduced to, “I will love those people, I suppose, if I must.” Jesus does not invite us to love merely on moral or legal grounds, or to love only those who love us, or to love in only a sentimental way.

No, Jesus, like St. Paul, reminds us that, at its fullest and most authentic, love is a gift exchange. Jesus describes God’s love; the ideal of love for us as this: “Gifts… given to [us]… a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing.” An exchange of gifts; an exchange of love is not something we must do; not something that there are laws to regulate; not something that we only do if we are promised to receive the same or a better gift in return; not something merely sentimental. If love is only this, it is not love. True love, to which St. Paul and Jesus invite us, builds relationships, builds community, brings us closer to God, and is the utmost exercise of our freedom which is itself God’s gift to us.