“Not Complicating God’s Simple Commands”- 07.10.22 (15th Sunday OT– C)

“Not Complicating God’s Simple Commands”

By: Fr. David Schmidt

All Saints Parish - St. Michael the Archangel Church - Butler, PA

Mass Readings - https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071022.cfm

In the Gospel, we hear the scholar of the law ask Jesus the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” This is a question that I imagine is on the hearts of all of us here as well as on the hearts of those who have never stepped inside a church. We have a desire to live forever and we want to know what we need to do in order to attain eternal life.

We ask this question thinking that we are going to get a complex or mysterious answer.  However, Jesus answers this in a very simple manner asking the scholar of the law in return, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” To which the man replies, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus then responds, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”

The answer is simple, love God and love your neighbor, but we are the ones who complicate it. We have trouble accepting the simplicity of the answer, so we try to act as if it is more complicated than what it is, by doing what the scholar of the law did and ask more questions such as ‘and who is my neighbor?’ to justify to ourselves that it’s not as simple or clear as it seems.  As we further complicate things we then begin to say, “Who knows what God really wants? How can I be certain what to do? It’s complex, it’s not clear, it’s all relative, who really knows for certain, after all?” (Kreeft, 486).

Moses in the first reading rejects this type of thinking as he says to the people, “For this command that I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you. It is not up in the sky, that you should say, 'Who will go up in the sky to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?' Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?' No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out.”

Peter Kreeft, theologian and philosopher says, that Moses reveals to us that “we know very clearly and certainly what God wants from us because he speaks to us not from the sky or from across the sea but from our own conscience.” (Kreeft, 486) Kreeft says that we know clearly what God wants because He has given us the 10 commandments which are very clear. What makes things unclear is our own will which fights against God’s will. We have the inner tension of “my will be done” vs. “God’s will be done” (Kreeft, 487). Kreeft says what we have the tendency to do is ‘nuance’ the Commandments ourselves and then act like the Commandments aren’t clear and that they are difficult to understand because we find them difficult for our rebellious wills to obey (Kreeft, 487).

Because of the gift of our conscience that God has given to us, we know in the depths of our heart and soul what is being asked of us. We just have trouble obeying it. Kreeft says that if we are honest with ourselves then we will realize that we know what to do 99% of the time. This is based on two authorities that God has given us: the 10 Commandments (external) and our conscience (internal). (Kreeft, 487)

The first duty of our conscience is “to honestly seek the truth, will the truth, and want to know the truth about what we should and should not do. And then to obey it.” (Kreeft, 487) As we know, the obeying part is difficult, so Kreeft says that we have a tendency to pretend that the knowing part is hard which makes disobeying easier.

As we seek the truth, we come to know that the Truth is revealed to us by God in the Scriptures and His Commandments. Once we have discovered the truth then we are to obey it. We have no excuses to not know and obey the truth. We have no excuses to not know and obey God’s Commandments. Whatever is not directly laid out in Scripture, the Church has illuminated it for us in its Magisterium (which is the teaching authority of the Church) which has 2,000 years of brilliant and holy minds under the guidance of the Holy Spirit who have clearly laid out what God is asking of us. 

Jesus knows that the majority of His children are not scholars of the law, and aren’t going to be experts in theology. This is why He makes it very simple for us. Saying that the whole Law can be summed up in two commandments- “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” If we love God and love our neighbor then we will inherit eternal life because by doing these two very simple things we will live a life that is pleasing to God.

Now when I say simple, I don’t mean easy, as it is not easy for us to love as God is calling us to love because we are sinners, however, what He is asking of us is very simple and clear to understand.

Today, let us ask God for the grace to follow His simple and clear command to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. To love as the Good Samaritan loved the man who was stripped and beaten by robbers who had left him half dead on the side of the road. Let us ask the Lord to form our conscience to seek, know, and obey the truth of His Law and Commandments at every moment of our lives, so that we may inherit eternal life, and be with Him in heaven forever. Amen.

Sources:

Kreeft, Peter. Food for the Soul: Reflection on the Mass Readings - Cycle C. Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, 2021.