April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
WORD OF FAITH

How to imitate God

FROM A READING FOR OCT. 23, 30TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind....Love your neighbor as yourself.' Matthew 22:37-39


Like most kids, I grew up being taught I should do good and avoid evil. For the most part, I did.

But when I asked myself, "Why?" I usually came up with, "I'm afraid not to do good." If I did something bad, I got punished, so I chose the path of least pain.

When I started to study my catechism, I discovered that a few of my actions might merit eternal punishment - a terrific motive for staying on the straight and narrow.

Then I began to study Scripture.

I learned that practically all the authors of the Hebrew Scriptures (including Sunday's Exodus 22:20-26 writer) knew nothing of an afterlife as we know it. This forced them to develop a system of reward and punishment that was limited to this life alone.

More than fear
Yet, as we hear in our Exodus reading, the ancient Israelites were motivated by more than just the fear of punishment. As faithful Jews, they tried to pattern their behavior on Yahweh's behavior.

Since they only knew about Yahweh's behavior from Yahweh's actions in their own lives and history, they were expected to treat people as Yahweh had treated them: for instance, "You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens in the land of Egypt."

Yahweh's generous treatment of them when they were slaves set the standard for their treatment of the helpless - especially widows, orphans, aliens and the poor. God's behavior is perfectly described in the last line: "I [Yahweh] am compassionate."

Jewish morality was based on the conviction that those who related to others as Yahweh related to them would experience a happy, fulfilled life - a terrific motive for doing good!

Paul (I Thes 1:5-10) encourages those in the Thessalonian Church to imitate not only God, but also himself: "You know what sort of people we were among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and the Lord, receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit, so that you became a model for all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia."

Begin with Christ
Because they've faithfully copied God and Paul's behavior, others are copying their behavior. Yet for Christians, Jesus is always the person who begins the circle. In one of the best-known passages of Scripture (Matthew 22:34-40), He compresses all 613 Mosaic laws into two essential commandments which governed His own life.

In a 1960s survey, Catholics were asked, "Which is the more important law: 'Love your neighbor,' or, 'Give up meat on Friday?'" More than half responded, "'Give up meat on Friday!'"

At some point along the more than 19 centuries of Christianity, Jesus' command to "love God and love your neighbor as yourself" was relegated to a back burner. Rules and regulations became more important than imitating a person.

Friday abstinence from meat was black and white; loving God and our neighbor is always a little hazy. (The obligation of meatless Fridays was lifted shortly after the survey.)

Perhaps our recent return to a rules-and-regulations Church can best be explained by the fact we who should be imitating Jesus rarely convey an image others can imitate.[[In-content Ad]]

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