Life and love

All of us read the Gospel, or hear it, regularly. We have a vague conviction that we understand it, that we believe in it, that we live by it. But, if you study the Gospel, and study our modern media, you discover that the media–which overwhelms us night and day, every hour on the hour–contradicts the Gospel to the teeth!

The Gospel, if you study it, goes up the down staircase, against all the values of our modern world. This is what the Gospel says:

• Love your enemies.

• Do good to those who hate you.

• Pray for those who treat you badly.

• To the one who strikes you on the cheek, turn to him the other.

• If anyone takes your coat from you, give him also your garment.

• If anyone would borrow from you, turn not away.

• If you lend to someone who can pay back, how are you different from the pagans? Lend to those who can not pay back, and your reward shall be great in heaven.

• Lend, when there is nothing to expect in return.

• If anyone has taken something from you, do not demand it back

• Do to others as you would have others do to you.

• Love your enemies, and do good to them.

• Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

• Do not judge, and you will not be judged.

• Do not condemn and you will not be condemned.

• Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

• Give, and it will be given back to you.

•You will receive full measure, pressed down, overflowing, shaken together, running over.

• The measure you give will be the measure given back to you.

• Put down the sword.

• Those who use the sword, will perish by the sword.

In the Gospel, it is crystal clear that Our Lord wanted to be poor. It began with the Incarnation, when he chose a poor peasant girl to be his mother. Then he engineered the census of the whole world, so that Joseph and Mary would go down to Bethlehem, find no room in the inns, and he would be born in a stable, wrapped in his mother’s veil, and laid in a manger on the straw, having nothing.

When he was offered in the Temple, his parents brought the offerings of the poor: a pair of pigeons. The law prescribed a lamb and a dove. But the poor were allowed to offer two turtle doves, or a pair of pigeons. Joseph and Mary brought two pigeons.

He was raised in a tiny village, about which Nathaniel said: "Can any good come out of Nazareth?" When he went out to teach, all the clothing that he owned he was wearing. He never had a bag. He never had any money in his purse. He made that a principle with his apostles: "When you go out to preach, never have any money in your purse."

He never had a home. When it was cold, they lit a fire. When it rained, they slept under a tree. "The birds of the air have nests, and the foxes have their holes, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay down his head." When he was crucified, they gambled for the clothing he did have. And he was buried in another man’s tomb, because he could not afford the expenses of his own funeral.

But it was more than that! He did not want to have anything that the world holds dear. Not even security! When he was a baby, the Roman soldiers swept into Bethlehem, looking for him, with orders to kill him. He was carried by Joseph and Mary, in fear, to Egypt.

In his public life, the Scribes and Pharisees were constantly on the alert, to trap him in his words, to find a reason to execute him. Every time that he appeared in the Temple, he knew that he was in danger.

The fact is, he did not want to have anything! "If anyone demands your coat from you, give him also your garment!". . . . . "If anyone takes anything from you, do not demand it back!". . . . . If you lend to those who can pay back, how are you different from the pagans? Lend to those who can not pay back, and your reward will be great in heaven!"

He wanted detachment from things. He felt that things, physical possessions, were nothing. The only important things were life and love.

God is Life. God is Love. This is the word of God which the world can not comprehend. Millions of dollars, and oceans of space on radio, television and press, are given to population control. This means: "Suppress life and love, so that you will have more things. . . . . . .Do not have children because children cost money. The important thing is money, and what money can buy – not the children."

This is the mild insanity of our day. Everyone, in his heart, knows that the child brings with him the life and the love of God. The money gives you things – the TV set, the car, the house, the clothes, the tour abroad – all of which are nothing. The real values of this world, in the heart of every man, and of every woman, are life and love.

The most deadly of the sentences of Christ our Lord are the words he spoke to Peter, in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the first Holy Thursday night, when Peter cut off the ear of the servant of the High Priest. He said: "Put down the sword. All who take the sword, will perish by the sword."

We hear these words – the infallible words of God – at least every year, during Holy Week. But we find it impossible to put them into practice. The "sword" is a symbol of the .38 caliber pistol, the .45, the armalite, the machine gun, the artillery piece, the intercontinental missile, the atom bomb.

We find it impossible to "put down the sword". Even though God told us to do it! Every middle and upper class home has a security guard, who carries a gun. Every barangay, every village, has a team of security guards, who carry guns. Every city and town has a police force, who carry guns. Every country has an army, which does nothing else but practice with the guns. All the major nations have intercontinental missiles, and atom bombs, and a large crew of people who have no purpose in living except to prepare for the day when they will lay waste the world.

We know that someday some Colonel will panic and press the button. Then all the other colonels, all over the world, will panic and press the button. When the smoke settles, nine out of ten of us will be dead. And the tenth, the survivor, will be envying the dead!

Our Lord says: "Give. Do not take. Love. Do not hate. Do not defend yourself. The only important things in this world are life and love." This is the wisdom of God.