Prepare to Love (2020-10-25, Sunday-30)

 2020-10-25 _  30^th Sunday

● Exodus 22:20-26   ● Psalm 18 ● 1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10  ● + Matthew 22:34-40 ●

Title:    Prepare to Love.

 

[_01_]   Recently, I had the fortunate experience of being “pre-approved”.

          We hear the term “pre-approved” often with regard to a certain products we buy. Somebody wants us to buy something or to remain a customer. Therefore, we are “pre-approved.”

          The goal in LOVE is not simply to get pre-approved but to get prepared !

[_02_]   One year ago, I went to the Verizon Wireless store for a new smartphone. Then within several months, the phone’s protective cover was cracked, several hairline fractures.

This cover has a warranty, but I did not know this. When I called up the manufacturer for the phone cover, I was asked for my receipt, or the warranty or the box in which the phone arrived. They wanted some proof of who I was.

Did I have the warranty, receipt and box/packaging of a phone purchased 12 months ago?

I don’t think so.

I just wanted the transaction to be over and insisted – because I did not have the warranty or receipt or packaging – I would just buy the new cover.

Even though I could not prove my identity…. The company then insisted on treating me as though I had shown them a receipt / warranty and are sending it to me for free, no cost, anyway.

I was, in a sense, pre-approved. That’s business, to give customers whatever they want, in order to get more money and business out of the customer.

         

[_03_]   Is love really about pre-approving everything?

[ God does love us unconditionally in that he loves us even in our sins. But he cannot love our sins. He cannot love evil. He will always forgive us if we repent. To love him back, we must be free to choose to love him or not. Love cannot be programmed or forced. To love him is the greatest thing we can do for ourselves. But we can choose to not love him. Our choice to not love him does not diminish his unconditional love. But it certainly diminishes ours. Source: https://www.catholic.com/qa/is-gods-unconditional-love-without-limit]

Our love is not about pre-approving. Unconditional love does not meant that I will never be corrected or never need to change – but that someone can love me so completely – so unconditionally – as to tell me when I am wrong.

It is also true that I am may be called upon to love another person so unconditionally that I will even risk “disapproval” to do what is right.

When you asked your mother or your father ”why” as a child and they said “because I said so…” That’s unconditional love!

Pre-approval ≠ love.

Let’s go to the other extreme – pre-judging ≠  love either.

 

[_04_]    Prejudice is not love.  Here is an example of an ordinary  everyday purchase, because we tend to shun or spurn the unfamiliar.

A few weeks ago,  apparently trying to be helpful, I went to the store and bought the best brand – or so I thought – brand of dairy whole milk -- HORIZON-brand, Organic, pasture-fed grass-fed cows, no antibiotics, etc. etc.

          I thought this would be preferable, favorable.

was a preferred brand. My parents did not like it, were very uncomfortable with it and was told to go out and by “regular milk.”

          Sometimes, we can reject a person place or thing simply because the encounter brings us face-to-face with the unfamiliar or someone of an unfamiliar background or experience to us.

          We may even fear them.

         

[_05_]    I am suggesting that LOVE – and the commandments to love – is not about being pre-approving or being pre-judging, but is about being prepared.

 

[_05_]         But, it’s also true that love of another involves sacrifice, difficulty, even suffering.

          So, we are called to imitate the Lord who, for example, taught us about the connection between love and forgiveness.     

          Jesus said, there is more joy in heaven over 1 repentant sinner than over 99 righteous people not in need of repentance.

          Who is the 1? Who are the 99?

          The 99 are not 99 arrogant Pharisees whom I do not know personally; nor are they 99 canonized saints whom I do not know personally.  (Dietrich Von Hildebrand, Transformation in Christ, “Ch. 2 Contrition”, p. 41)

          The 99 are those – and sometimes I am one of them – who believe  they are already justified, already complete but who are really not yet fully known.

          When we are in a loving relationship with someone, it is not a question of IF but rather WHEN we are called up to forgive the other….and also to admit our own need for forgiveness.   

          We are not simply called to know another person’s good side and strengths, but also to know the unfamiliar territory of their sinfulness, the unfamiliar territory of loving but truly giving a correction to the other, the unfamiliar territory of loving our enemies, praying for those who persecute us, not only so that we will love God’s commandments, but also know them by our own experience.

          Jesus does sometimes ask us what we do not want to do. That’s also unconditional love too.

          Jesus laid down his life for us while we were still sinners. To know Him is to love Him.  [_fin_]