Next Sunday, the 30th Sunday of Year A, contains, in the reading from Exodus, one of the most beautiful passages in Scripture (20:22-26). In it, God himself intercedes in the most tender manner for the person who is deprived of his cloak: “If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, you shall return it to him before sunset; for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body. What else has he to sleep in? If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate.”
Sometimes we think too abstractly about God. These few lines describe someone who knows very well the vulnerable and fragile condition of a person who sleeps without a warm covering on a cold night. He will broker no excuse as to why we might feel justified in depriving that poor person of that warm cloak. I don’t know about you, but those few lines say everything I need to know about my God, the Father of the Lord Jesus. I want that God to be my God. He cares for his people. He speaks the most beautiful truth about himself when he describes himself in these words: “I am compassionate.”
Pope Emeritus Benedict describes scripture’s double commandment of love as “performative language.” For the prophets and Jesus, love is never an abstract concept. It is always concrete and specific as to person, place and circumstance. If you come upon a hungry person, love commands that you give that person something to eat. Did Jesus send the hungry crowds away to find food on their own? No. He fed them, leaving his disciples and us an action parable, a concrete example of performative love. If, like the Good Samaritan, you come upon a person beaten and left for dead on the side of the road, you do whatever is in your power to better his situation.
I remember a discussion with a group of laymen who were studying to become “Sons of St. Francis de Sales.” They were all professional men, many of whom worked in downtown Washington, DC. Every day they encountered homeless or down and out people looking for a “hand-out.” At first the discussion centered on whether helping them was a form of unhealthy enablement. Did it keep them from seeking employment, and so on? Finally, one of them said what he did. He said he simply handed out whatever his means permitted to whomever asked him, leaving it up to God to sort out those other concerns. His gospel example was the Good Samaritan whom Jesus himself held up as example to his followers. The Good Samaritan did not ask if the man deserved his help. He found a fellow human being in need and simply helped him in very concrete ways.
This week will present every one of us with countless opportunities to practice “performative love,” especially during this stubborn pandemic. We are commanded to love, both God and neighbor, with “neighbor” understood in the broadest possible manner. Let us love as the compassionate God asks us to love in Exodus 22 and as Jesus commanded us at the last supper: “As I have done for you, so you are to do for one another.”
Gospel love is concrete, foot washing love!
God be Praised!
Gratefully,
V. Rev. Lewis S. Fiorelli, OSFS
Provincial
This reflection originally appeared in DeSales Weekly, the e-newsletter of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales.
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