Love. One. Another.
“‘So, we are sending Judas and Silas who will also convey this same message by word of mouth: ‘It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities, namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meats of strangled animals, and from unlawful marriage. If you keep free of these, you will be doing what is right. Farewell.’” Acts 15:27-29
Jesus said to his disciples: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. John 15:12-14
Piety
Prologue, RB: See how God’s love shows us the way of life. Clothed then with faith and the performance of good works, let us set out on this way, with the gospel for our guide, that we may deserve to see the Holy One “who has called us to the eternal presence (I Thes 2:12).”
Study
The Talmud notes that the Hebrew numerical value (gematria) of the word “Torah” is 611. Combining Moses’s 611 commandments with the first two of the Ten Commandments which were the only ones heard directly from God, adds up to 613. So, if you were a Jew in ancient Israel, you had a lot to keep track.
When St. Benedict came along and write down his Rule, even that had 73 chapters. Judas and Silas and Paul boil the rules down to three in order not to place any burden on the people. Jesus goes even further.
Neither 613 rules or 73 chapters are what we encounter today. Jesus boiled it all down to one. One. Simple. Profound. Difficult. Commandment. Simply profound. Profoundly difficult.
“Love one another as I love you.”
The Christian life is an immersion in the Gospel life so intense that we never forget for a moment what we are really about. With only one simple rule, it makes it easier not to forget what we are here to do. Not to be distracted by the movements of busy-ness in life.
The Cursillo tripod disciple means that we are not to stumble through life from one pious exercise to another, hoping that in the end, everything will be all right. We are neither concerned about rules 39 and 40 nor preoccupied with 216 or 217.
- The continual burnt offering (Tamid sacrifice) must be offered twice daily. (Numbers 28:2-6)
- The grain and drink offering must be offered twice daily. (Numbers 28:2-8)
- Do not plant a vineyard with two kinds of seed. (Deuteronomy 22:9)
- Do not crossbreed different species of animals. (Leviticus 19:19)
Love. One. Another.
Action
St. Benedict reminds us that life is short, that we don’t have time to waste time, that some things are significant in life and some things are not. We all have to ask ourselves what time it is in our own lives. We each have to begin to consider the eternal weight of what we are spending life doing. We have to start someday to wonder if we have spent our lives on gold or dross.[1]
All we have to do is Love. One. Another.
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