[stephenkhoo]

ATTUNING ONESELF TO THE UNIVERSAL LAW OF LOVE 

SCRIPTURE READINGS: DT 26:16-19; PS 119:1-2, 4-5, 7-8; MT 5:43-48
http://www.universalis.com/20140315/mass.htm

In the responsorial psalm today, we say, “Happy are they who follow the law of the Lord.”  But how can one be happy in obeying laws?  Very often, laws are something external to us and are oppressive.  That is why they are called laws.  One is obliged to obey it.  So how can the psalmist say that “he is happy who follows the law of the Lord”?

In order to understand this, one must understand what the law of the Lord is.  It is none other than the universal laws of life, of love, of the whole of creation.  If God gave Israel the laws, they are meant to be the guiding principles of life.  The laws are but the expression of the harmony of nature.  They are the universal truths of life.  We are part of nature and creation.  Hence, in order to stay happy, we need to be one with the laws of nature.  To obey God’s laws therefore, is to be one with creation, with ourselves and with God.

And one of these fundamental laws is the law of love, extending even to our enemies.  But why should we love our enemies?  Very often we think that to love our enemies is something exceptional for us to do.  On the contrary, not to love our enemies is not to do what we are meant to do.  It is the worldly person who sees loving enemies as a noble thing, beyond the ordinary strength of man.  But for the enlightened person, that is the only way to live because it is the right way to live without hurting ourselves.

Why? Because not to love our enemies is not to love ourselves.  When we show hatred for others, we make our own lives miserable.  If we harbor hatred in our lives, it means that we are allowing our adversaries to control our lives.  When we meet someone we do not like and we get irritated, it means that we are allowing them to determine our control our disposition.  We become slaves to them.

For that reason, God, we are told in today’s gospel, let His sun rise on the bad and the good; let His rain fall on the just and the unjust.  God is equanimous to the situation and to all.  He loves the just and the unjust, the saint and the sinner equally.  He has no enemies.  We cannot make Him sad unless He chooses to be sad.  We cannot make Him suffer unless He chooses to suffer.  In other words, God is in control of Himself.  He is in charge of His own happiness.  And if He allows Himself to feel with and for us, it is because He is compassionate.  But that does not mean that we have power over Him.

When the gospel invites us to be perfect just as our heavenly Father is perfect, it simply means that we are called to adopt the same kind of attitude He has towards His creation.   It means that His is inviting us to be one with His creation and one with Him and our fellowmen.

To do this, we must pray for our enemies as Jesus advised us to do.  The reason why we pray for them is not so much for their benefit, but for ourselves.  Unless we pray for our enemies, we will not be able to see how we are hurting ourselves by hating them.  But when we pray for them, we will begin to see their goodness, their kindness and their love.  Indeed, very often, we only focus on the weaknesses and the faults of our enemies, when in reality, their goodness outweighs their weaknesses.  In praying for them, we learn to feel with them in their struggles, in their weaknesses.  Consequently, in recognizing their strengths and empathizing with them in their weaknesses, we will see them in a different perspective and in a more wholesome and balanced view. Thus, even if others treat us as their enemies and we do not see them as such, we will also be able to understand and accept that they also need time to grow and change.  We will not condemn them or react in hostility towards them.

When we see them the way God sees them, we cannot but find them lovable.  Hatred then is overcome by love; anger by compassion, hostility by understanding.   It is to be one with His creation, His universal law of truth.  This will then set us free to love and be happy always, which is what the resurrection also brings.  This is the way we can indeed prepare for the day of resurrection during this season of Lent. 

WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV MSGR WILLIAM GOH