Friends
Peace be with you.
Some of you may remember, shortly after the election of Pope Leo XIV, there was a disagreement between Vice President J.D. Vance and the Holy Father with regard to the treatment of immigrants. The Vice President cited a principle from theology called the Ordo Amoris, or the order of love. Most of us had no idea what he was talking about, even people like me who study theology. The principle, which comes from St. Augustine but was refined by St. Thomas Aquinas, says that, with limited resources, we take care of those closest to us before we take care of strangers. Bishop Barron, in explaining the principle, used an example built upon the California wildfires. Imagine arriving home after work to find your entire city block on fire. If you’re a part of a family, you would be obliged to make sure your family is safe and out of the house before you worry about your neighbors, let alone that annoying neighbor that you don’t get along with. That’s the Ordo Amoris: we first care for those we are obliged to take care of before we care for strangers.
As that debate was going on, I couldn’t help but think of this particular passage of scripture, where Jesus seems to contradict the very nature of the Ordo Amoris. “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me…” St. Matthew is deprioritizing love of father, mother, son and daughter, which doesn’t seem very Ordo Amoris to me. Were St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine ignorant of scripture and too reliant on Plato and Aristotle when they developed this theory? Or were they keenly aware of what Jesus was trying to get across?
Immediately prior to this passage of scripture, Jesus warns his disciples that his message will not be a message of unity but a message of division. He tells them that, if you believe in him, it will cause divisions in your household. He says, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man ‘against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household.’ Now that doesn’t sound very Ordo Amoris to me. This sets the stage for today’s Gospel. When we believe in Jesus, it will mean that people we love will hate us or think less of us. It’s one thing when it is parents or grandparents and we are rebellious youths drawing our own paths in life. It’s completely different when it is our spouse who is meant to be our equal, our partner in flesh, or our children, our grandchildren, or our godchildren, people we are meant to mentor in the faith. I know people who have left the faith because they feel like they are failures because their children left the faith.
Jesus does something really important in the next part of today’s gospel. He says, “...whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” This is the first time Jesus mentioned his cross in the Gospel of Matthew. It will, obviously, play a central role from here on out until Jesus dies on it. It plays a central role in our life as well. It is the goal of the Christian, the ordo, if you will, of our life. Jesus is the one we love first because he put us and them first. Without his death on the cross, not only would we not be able to love those around us but love itself would not exist. His death is the supreme act of selfless love for the world. That’s the Ordo Amoris, not that we need to sacrifice our life to jump into a fiery building to save our family and neighbors, but that we must take up our cross and follow Jesus every day in every act we do. We do it, not because we need rewards but because we are his little ones who feel so grateful for this act of sacrifice that we are willing to sacrifice our comforts, our will, and even our very selves for him.
How is Jesus calling you today to order your love by taking up his cross?
No comments:
Post a Comment