8 November 2017
Wednesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
A temptation has always existed to reduce religion to the lowest common denominator. This is a movement we can all agree upon and subsequently avoid ceaseless and unnecessary squabbles about technical aspects of doctrine or issues of authority. It is tempting to look at today’s reading from Paul’s epistle to the Romans and consider it a simplistic solution to the complexities of religious practice: Love your neighbor as yourself. We often desire simple solutions for complex problems. If all I ever needed to know in life was learned at day care in a sandbox, we would be awfully short of surgeons and pilots. Life is complex and the answer, of course, is love. However, how that love is given, that is, what is best for a person, a family, or a community, requires no little knowledge of frequently complex situations and resources. We can stand with Paul in understanding the importance of Love, but we also know that complexities of life frequently demand more than simplistic responses and pithy one-liners.