"For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith." --I John 5:3-4
I have always liked this passage because it speaks to a big misconception in Catholic and Christian thought today. And the misconception is essentially: that the commandments are a burden. I thought that was the whole point, some people might say. To keep his commandments is a chore, an act of repression. And we have to do it out of faith, or the secular world's favorite quasi-religious expression, "blind faith." In other words, we have to keep these commandments for no apparent reason whatsoever. You just have to do it. Don't question. Don't think. Just obey.
But not according to the beloved disciple. He says "The love of God is this, that we keep his commandments." Does this mean that God will only love us if we keep his commandments? No. God loves us just the way we are, but he loves us too much to let us stay that way. It's because he loves us too much to let us stay that way that he gave us his commandments. The commandments are God's love letter to humanity, and when we break those commandments, it is not that God gets angry and ceases to love us. It is that we throw away the love letter.
Think about what led up to God calling Moses to the mountain and giving him the Ten Commandments. Creation. The Fall of Man. The Enslavement of the Hebrews in Egypt. The great Exodus from slavery in Egypt. What has God just done here? He has freed the people from slavery. Will he now enslave them again with arbitrary rules and regulations? That would be illogical.
The more sensible way to look at this is that God freed them physically first, from without. Then he freed them spiritually, from within, by giving them the Commandments. God knows his people. He knows us better than we know ourselves. Which means he knows what will bring us freedom and happiness above and beyond what little superficial liberation and good-feeling we could scrounge up living our own way.
That is why the commandments are Good News. If God had not given us the commandments, and if he had not sent Jesus to live among us and give us the greatest commandment, none of us would be happy. His people would still be slaves. But he freely chose to actually come down out of heaven and tell us exactly what we need to do to be happy.
There is no freedom in the world greater than love. There is no more complete happiness than to love without fear. But it must be the love of Christ, the love that does not flinch and does not tire. To give without cost. To love one’s enemies. To be completely unhindered by selfish concerns and desires. These are all characteristics of the happiest people to walk the earth. Mother Theresa,
Categories:
