Thursday, May 15, 2008


Thursday in the 6th Week of Ordinary Time (II)
Love is Clear-Sighted


Readings: James 2:1-9; Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7; Mark 8:27-33
Picture: CC ul_Marga

Love is blind… At first sight, this may seem to be the lesson to be found in the first reading for today. For here James tells us that the right thing to do is to keep the supreme law of scripture: you must love your neighbour as yourself; but as soon as you make distinctions between classes of people, you are committing sin, and under condemnation for breaking the Law. It would seem then, that to love is to be blind to the distinctions between classes of people, especially those between the poor and the wealthy.

There will likely be those who will delight in taking this teaching against distinctions to its apparent logical extreme and argue for a kind of radical equality of persons and roles. If love is blind to all distinctions then how can we justify having people in positions of authority, whether secular or ecclesiastical? How can we continue, for example, to distinguish between clergy and lay, the governors and the governed? Shouldn’t love blind us even to distinctions such as these?

And yet, at least in the Catholic tradition, we continue to speak of a hierarchical church, i.e., a church that is ordered according to distinctive roles, just as the human body is made up of various parts. How to justify such distinctions except to realize that rather than blinding us, true love should help us to see more clearly the reality that is before us. And an important aspect of this reality is that we are many parts that make up one body (1 Corinthians 12). We are each blessed with distinctive gifts and are called to fulfill various roles for the common good. Love is not blind. Quite the contrary, love should make us more clear-sighted and desirous of facilitating the flourishing of the diverse manifestations of the Spirit’s powerful presence in our midst.

Even so, we cannot deny that there are ways of making distinctions that blind us to the common dignity that we are all meant to enjoy before God. The bias against the poor is but one of these. We might think also of the tendency – often all too unconscious – to consider the hierarchical church only in terms of honour and privilege. In our exercise of and deference toward authority, for example, how well do we truly appreciate that ours is a hierarchy of humble service and of obedient self-emptying? How deeply are we imbued with the Spirit of the crucified and risen Lord who, in the gospel today, speaks of being destined to suffer grievously…? To what extent do leaders listen as much as they teach? How much of our activity is truly motivated by service rather than self-seeking?

Clearly, what’s at stake in the readings today goes far beyond equal treatment for the poor and the rich. At root, it’s about the extent to which we live out the commandment of love. It’s about how we think and about how we see. Especially important for us is to listen anew to Jesus’ rebuke of Peter in the gospel of today: the way you think is not God’s way but man’s…

How clear-sighted is our love today?

3 comments:

  1. If everyone were to play the same role, wouldn't we all slow down to the speed of a millipede? :-p

    Fortunately, St Paul has written beautifully and clearly (in Rom 12 and 1 Cor 12) of the Church being "one body with many parts", how each one of us are given different gifts and therefore suited to play different roles. And Jesus has demonstrated on Maundy Thursday that leadership among His followers is supposed to be "servant leadership" and NOT for "lording over others".

    Perhaps a more meaningful application of James 2:9 is to show basic courtesy and consideration to all, regardless of their position in society or church, OR apparent goodness, "bad-ness", likeability or not.

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  2. It brings to mind the expression that all persons are made equal; yet some are more equal than others. If we are clear sighted surely this allows each of us to be different and yet honor each other for what we are. Love may be blind to a lover’s imperfections but surely not to the plight of fellow humans who suffer in the wake of disasters in China and Myanmar; where grief is clearly etched in the file photos.
    Our Lord left us with one clear instruction – Love God and love one another. If we are all created by the same creator, how else can it be otherwise? What makes a person special other than the fact that the gifts endowed by God are meant to be shared with another? Service itself is self serving.
    How easily are we blinded by what the world dictates and forget that it is paramount that we keep our focus on the present but cast our sight on the eternal, for that’s where our future lies. If we cannot see too clearly, we can get our bi-focal lens calibrated to see Jesus in everyone we meet.

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  3. We cannot be blind to the fact that the material world is ordered and structured: mountains and valleys; giraffes and geckos; towering Redwoods and mere weeds on the forest floor. In human society too: the rich and poor; young and old; strong and weak; smart and gullible; powerful and powerless. Each has its role and purpose in the grand divine design of things.

    Love is blind when it chooses to see only what it wants to see.

    Blindness follows from a hardening of the heart (albeit a medical condition yet unproven).

    Love is clear sighted to the uniqueness of the individual, warts and all.

    Clear vision is when the mind drives behavior because the heart is overflowing with eternal Love.

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