Love your neighbour
“The only thing that counts is faith expressing
itself through love.” That’s a pretty powerful statement, encapsulating how we
are called to live as Christians. Paul goes on to remind us that we were called
to be free, that because of Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross, we are no
longer in thrall to sin, no longer tied to ritualistic religious practice, or
conventional signs of religious observance. Instead, because the Son of God has
set us free, we are free indeed. Then we may ask the existential questions
‘What is freedom?’, ‘What are we freed to do?’.
The answer we are given is that we should use our freedom wisely,
serving one another in love, summarised in the command ‘Love your neighbour as
yourself.’ As so often in Jesus’ encounters with those around him, one question
leads to another. In this case, in
Jesus’ conversation with an expert in the Jewish law: ‘Who is my neighbour?’.
In this age of global travel and instant news, we
may know far more about a Facebook friend who lives on the other side of the
world than we do about the person living across the street from us, all
emphasising that we are part of the whole global community.
We are also becoming ever more conscious of the
scale and imminence of the climate emergency facing our planet. Although it may
have little day to day impact on our comfortable lives in Belgium’s temperate
climate, we cannot be ignorant of the devastating fires in Australia, typhoons
and flooding in the Philippines, unprecedented high temperatures in Antarctica,
or closer to home, the shrinking of the Mer de Glace near Chamonix over the
last 20 years. Such extreme events are already affecting millions of our
neighbours, which gives us something to reflect on when we consider how to love
our neighbours as ourselves. We may be asking what we as individuals can do...
In the Gospel reading for today, we find the
familiar story of the small boy offering his lunch of five loaves and two
fishes to Jesus. Whilst genuine and well-meaning, this must have seemed such a
small gesture, faced with the hungry crowd of thousands. But we see that in
Jesus’ hands, this individual initiative was multiplied, feeding everyone, and
even leaving twelve baskets of left-overs. In this large-scale miracle, Jesus
showed that individual actions count. He also showed his concern for proper
stewardship of resources - having provided abundantly, he insisted that nothing
should be wasted. Two good lessons for us. The passage from Genesis of
Abraham’s sons going to Egypt to seek food during the famine is another example
of God’s ample provision for His world. There was then, and still is today,
enough to go round, if we are prepared to share and strive for fair
distribution, not just of food, but by working to ensure that the impact and
burden of climate change does not fall unjustly on those of our neighbours who
tread much more lightly on the earth than we do, and who are least equipped to
cope.
We don’t know what the result of our actions will
be, but it is important to take each step, and to offer what we have. The Lord
will do the rest.
And so we come full circle, back to “the only thing
that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
How will you express your faith today? What will you
do to love your neighbour?
Zelie Peppiette
Christ
multiplies the loaves and fish - Andrews diptych (Top Left), 450-460,
Victoria & Albert Musuem, London
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