One expectation Jesus spoke of is “...love your enemies and do good to them, and lend, expecting nothing back…”. How many of us worry about high returns on our money in today’s world? This seems to be an opposite view of the capitalistic theme in our society, don’t you think?
Then, Jesus said, “Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you…”. Is this God fooling with us? Or how about this one: “Stop judging and you will not be judged.” How does He expect us to reach this high bar when judging others seems to be the order of the day in the world we live?
In this Gospel by Luke, Jesus spells out specifically what God wants in His followers and it stands in direct opposition to what much of the world around us practices. What does The Rule of St. Benedict offer to confront these confounding discrepancies? According to St. Benedict in Chapter 4 of the Rule, “Your way of acting should be different from the world’s way, the love of Christ must come before all else.” Note it does not say “our” way of acting, it is a singular pronoun. That means “me.”
When the world around “me” beckons me to follow the easy path of injustice, self-indulgence, judging others and betraying core principles of the Gospel, it is up to “me” to go back to the teachings of the Rule of St. Benedict and the Gospel. All we need to know about walking the path of Jesus and being His follower is laid out for us. Both Luke and St. Benedict gave us the road map for eternal life. Easy? Not so much. We will fail and when we fail, we must be willing to “forgive,” forgive ourselves and others. Then, we pull ourselves up by the bootstraps, as my Dad use to say, and continue on His path. Isn’t God’s wisdom greater than our own? Thank you, St. Luke, for the awakening.
Blessings,
Mary Baier, OblSB
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