Last time I tried to make the case (even if somewhat rambling) that if we want to distill the message of Salvation down to one essential, to the one thing that is absolutely necessary and sufficient to receive that Salvation, I would say it is “Solus Amor”; Love alone. And by Love, I mean the Love exemplified at the cross: the Love of God. If I have that, and if that is how I Love God above all things and my neighbor as myself, then everything else will (and must) follow.

Everything follows because when you know God’s Love, you cannot help but to Trust Him (Fide); you cannot help but to want to know Him better by reading His Word (Scriptura); and then through reading of His Word we come to understand how His Mercy and Grace (Gratia) came through the sacrifice of His Son (Christus).

Last time I said, and reiterate here, that these are all inseparable. It should be impossible to love Scripture and hate my neighbor. Yet, many managed to do exactly that in Jesus’ time. And you would think it would be even more impossible to love God and yet hate His children. Yet, John the apostle had to reprove the Church precisely on that point:

1 John 4: 19-21 *We* love because *he* has first loved us. If any one say, I love God, and hate his brother, he is a liar: for he that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he that loves God love also his brother.

So, how can that possibly happen? How can I claim to love God and hate my brother?

I can tell you the human excuse: “He’s not my brother.” It is the most ancient excuse… “He’s not one of us.” Every conflict of tribe versus tribe, nation against nation, “religion” against “religion” is based on that distinction: Them versus Us.

Some will even try to justify it by using Scripture, and tell you – for instance – that Paul told us to first love the members of the household of God. But the problem is that, whenever anyone tries to use Scripture to contradict the Spirit of God, they inevitably end up pitting Scripture against Scripture. And that either means that the Word of God can contradict itself or that it is all a matter of interpretation:  mine against yours.

But neither of those alternatives is acceptable.

The first implies that God lies; that His yes does not mean yes and His no does not mean no. Do you really think that is possible of the God who said, (Numbers 23:19) God is not a man, that he should lie; neither a son of man, that he should repent. Shall he say and not do? and shall he speak and not make it good?  That was His reply to Balak, through Balaam, when the latter kept trying a way to find a loophole around God’s express word. Would this God be so sloppy with His revelation that He would contradict Himself?

The second implies that God’s Truth is open to interpretation; that it is “relative”; that you can have your truth and I can have mine. And that, again, is impossible for the God of Old and New Testament. Think about it: The one instance where all of us are most tempted to try to find a favorable interpretation of God’s Word (favorable to us) is when we are caught in sin.

David was found in that place when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had her husband killed. But when found out, he bowed down in repentance and said: (Psalm 51:4) Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done what is evil in thy sight; that thou mayest be justified when thou speakest, be clear when thou judgest.

Have you ever wondered why David says that he had sinned only against God? The answer is that any time we sin against a fellow man, we can find a way to justify it… After all, we are all sinners. “I only did to them what they deserved…” we can say. Whether we say it out loud or just in our hearts, it is still there; because we can always find a way to make ourselves superior to them.

BUT, when we recognize that every human being in this world is a child of God, then whatever sin we commit against the child, is a sin against God. And no one can ever justify sinning against the God that has given every one of us – freely – life, breath, and mercy.

So, when John sees professing believers hating their own brothers, he calls it like it is: That can only happen when we willingly become liars. (As Paul says, in quoting that verse from Psalm 51… (Romans 3:4) (NIV) Let God be true, and every human being a liar…)

There is no gentle way to say this.

1 John 1:8-10 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us [our] sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

That is who we are… No wonder we can find a way of twisting love itself.

Ordo Amoris? Baloney!

You have heard it: Saint Augustine of Hippo supposedly told us that we are called to love first our family and closest relations before loving everybody else indiscriminately. (Especially – God forbid – those undocumented migrants.)

I have seen this concept defended by appealing to Jesus’ words: by claiming that when He sent His apostles in Mathew 15:24, exclusively to the Jews and not the Gentiles, He was exhibiting this idea of “loving first” his “family” his “tribe”. Or that by selecting only 12 apostles, He was showing to them preferential love. Or, for that matter, that the fact that when from the cross he asked John to take His mother into his house He was showing her a preferential love that he was not extending to all the homeless widows of His town.

I hope you realize how nonsensical such arguments are. They are based on twisting the meaning of words and circumstances to defend a rhetorical argument.

To prove how wrong they are, simply turn to Jesus’ own teachings:

Matthew 25:41-46 (NIV) “Then he [the King] will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Do you really think that the hungry, the naked, the imprisoned He is talking about here are your own family? Think again: I was a stranger and you did not invite me in. Jesus is not inventing a new commandment here; He is just restating what the Lord already had revealed to His people:

Deuteronomy 10:17-19 (NIV) For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.

Or what about the parable of the rich man and Lazarus? Was the rich man’s sin that he did not care for his family first?

Luke 16:19-25“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with soresand longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

“But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.

Have you ever read that parable and not felt trepidation? Look at it carefully… Did the rich man injure Lazarus in any way? Wasn’t the rich man justly enjoying the fruits of his own good fortune and labor? Why then did he have to end up in Hell?

“Hey… if Lazarus had not been a lazy bum, he could have gotten a job and fed himself…”

Do you hear that voice?

I hope you don’t. And if you do, I hope you know where it is coming from.

The rich man’s sin was plain and simple, a sin of omission… he refused to share what he had with one who had nothing. Isn’t that the same with all the sins the goats in that other parable get accused of? They did not visit, they did not feed, they did not clothe… strangers in need.

“But why is that such a terrible sin? It’s my life isn’t it? They have their own lives… I don’t ask anyone else to feed me or help me? Why should they be dependent on me?”

Do you hear that voice?

Then you are missing the point…

Luke 12:16-21 And he spoke a parable to them, saying, The land of a certain rich man brought forth abundantly. And he reasoned within himself saying, What shall I do? for I have not [a place] where I shall lay up my fruits. And he said, This will I do: I will take away my granaries and build greater, and there I will lay up all my produce and my good things; and I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much good things laid by for many years; repose thyself, eat, drink, be merry. 

But God said to him, Fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee; and whose shall be what thou hast prepared? Thus is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

Did you see all those “I”s?

That is why that rich man was condemned, why the rich man of the parable was condemned, why the goats were condemned… They all thought they deserved their lot in life. And they thought everything they had was theirs… and theirs to do with as they pleased.

But the Truth is that nothing that I have belongs to me.

I only have what I have by the mercy and grace of God. And if He has commanded me to love others by giving of it freely, even indiscriminately, then who am I to complain?