The Challenge of Love, and Progress

'Love one another' – that was the New Commandment. It was simple, it boiled all the other stuff down to a simple concept that the most simple of people could understand. And it continues to be an elegant way of looking at life. If you live life from this perspective, it might not be easier, but it will be better.

So when I was sitting in church last Sunday morning and I heard that line from John's gospel, I couldn't help contrasting that simplicity with all the complexity we've built into churches today. I'm Catholic, after all, and we (collectively, anyway) like rules and have lots of them. We've had a couple thousand years to work on them. Although we have lots of rules, most of us tend to apply them selectively. We sort of filter out what we don't like and then do our best to abide by the remaining ones. Birth control, capital punishment, care for the environment and the poor, and various rubrics & traditions come to mind. Anyone who thinks Catholics unanimously adhere to some monolithic set of rules and beliefs hasn't spent much time around Catholics.

I've never been much of a fan for rules, but I do have a sincere appreciation for principles – and 'love one another' is one hell of a principle. Though I remember learning about all sorts of church rules and clear-cut positions from the Baltimore Catechism and other texts in Sunday School (thanks to Aunt Evelyn, Aunt Millie, Mrs Treiber and Mr Charles!), I actually don't remember most of that now. But from the first time I heard it, 'love one another' made a lasting impression.

I can't think of any situation in life that is made worse by loving one another.

Yet, given the simplicity of the message, countless people have violated it over and over. Even the people who are supposed to be preaching it have ignored it. The draw to love ourselves, manifested by ego, reputation, greed, 'avoiding scandal' and so on, has left scars on people and society through the centuries. I've studied history a bit, and it is amazing to see just how often we really don't learn from our past mistakes.

So some look at that and see religion and the church as full of hypocrites, and that is understandable. Who can count the times that we've preached 'love one another' and then committed all sorts of bad acts? There are some bad, evil people in this world, and some of them are in our churches. However, I think that most people, most of the time, are doing the best they can do with the emotional fortitude they have at the moment. Even at our best, we're not perfect. But, hopefully, we always try or at least are aware of how we miss the mark. In the end, it's not about perfection, but progress. We may never truly be able to love one another consistently, sincerely and with some depth; but I do believe that it matters a lot that we can look back over the past months or years and say that yes, we have loved a bit more than we did before.

Comments

[Steve M]

You make a very useful distinction, Steve, between rules and principles. As a writing teacher, I have this conversation over and over with students. Good writing is not about memorizing a ton of rules (a misconception that many of them hold, one which leads them to throw up their hands because they know they'll never memorize all those rules). Learning to write well mainly involves remembering a handful of key principles: audience; purpose; figuring out your rhetorical stance and adjusting as necessary; figuring out how to turn a piece of writer-oriented prose into something that is more reader-friendly. That's a holistic approach to writing instruction, but not as new-fangled as it may at first seem. Its roots are in ancient rhetoric. The parallel here is that the core principle of "Love one another" may strike some in the church as a hippy-dippy, feel-good truism, yet it of course came out of the lips of Christ, and very much from his heart as well.

I also like your point about how this principle is one that even the simplest among us can understand. As long as we've been shown love by some (let's hope most) of the important people around us, and our minds are not affected by some drastic pathology, we can figure out ways to love others. It's a straight-forward call from God, not an angels-on-heads-of-pins deal, which so often seems the case with canon law. Frequently when I listen to Catholic radio, I hear that sort of discussion on the call-in shows. "Exactly which color stole should Father have used when saying Mass last Sunday? I suspect he wore the wrong one." What a turn off for any prospective Catholic Christian! And how many miles removed from the basic, life-changing principles of holiness and love taught by Jesus. You've reminded me that Jesus said his yoke was light, not something that need drive us away from striving from holiness (progress rather perfection, as you said). Thanks for bringing things back to the essentials. "Love one another" -- a challenge I will carry with me tomorrow.

[Steve Bogner]

Great points Steve - thanks for sharing your insight!

[ms]

To paraphrase John Lovejoy Elliott: "I have known many good people who did not believe in God. But I have never known a human being who was good who did not believe in people."

[Victor]

I've heard those words, Love one another as I have loved you, so many times as a Catholic and so many times I recall having failed but all I can do is keep trying as you said in so many words.

Please keep me in your prayers Steve.

God Bless

[Steve Bogner]

ms - That is a great quote; I plan to reuse it often :)

Victor - None of us is perfect - hang in there!