Homily for 15 Feb 2016

15 Feb 2016

In one of his sermons, St Augustine said: “Love, and do as you will.”  This was meant to be (somewhat) a summary of God’s commandments, and to put in a nutshell the relationship between the Law of God and our everyday life.  “Love, and do as you will.”

In other words, the Law of God (the Divine Law of Love) is already written on our hearts; all we have to do is carry it out.  When St Augustine says: “Love!” it’s a prophetic command to “be human!”  “Being human” and “loving” should be synonymous.  But how often do we hear people say (after they’ve made a mistake and failed to love), “Well, I’m only human.”

“I’m only human:” as though we were made to be unloving.  And it’s that view of humanity that makes God’s commandments necessary.  Those basic commandments to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves are given to remind us of who we are as human beings.  They’re not an imposition; they’re not given so we can follow them mechanically, and without thinking.  Instead, the commandments are the “blueprint,” they’re the “DNA” that makes us human.

And that’s why St Augustine can say: “Love, and do as you will.”  If we’re simply loving and merciful and fully human in our everyday life, we won’t have to worry about whether or not we’re following the Law of God . . . because we will be.  We won’t have to worry about “following” the commandments, because we’ll be too busy living the commandments.

“Love, and do as you will.”  This is what Jesus seems to be saying in the Gospel: “Don’t love God and others because you have to; instead, just be human and love—just live the Law of decency and respect and kindness and mercy already written on your hearts.”  And then we’ll be able to say to Jesus, “I had no idea I was helping you and loving you . . . I was just being human.”