I went to Catholic grade school in the 1980s. And during that time, I heard quite frequently that God loves me. This is wonderful and true and, frankly, none of us really actually fathoms how deep that love is. In fact, many people think it is a trite love, shallow, saccherine; we roll our eyes at the line.
If I may be so bold as to suggest why. The reason why we aren’t moved much by God’s love is because we aren’t moved by His justice. And we aren’t moved by His justice because, well, some of us have do not know it.
Hear what the psalmist says to us today: “The Lord comes to rule the world with justice.”
Do we know what that means?
The word, “justice,” means to give to another what they deserve, to pay what is owed. If a farmer sells his crops, he is owed money for them; if a wife makes a dinner, she is owed our gratitude. We pay our money and we pay our thanks not from love or courtesy, but because of justice. Love would require something more – like giving the wife flowers or a backrub or some quality time.
Similarly, parents are owed a little labor from their children; “anyone… unwilling to work… should not eat” (2 Thess 3:7ff). If a young man is unwilling to help clean the dishes or mow the lawn, can he really demand that he is owed food? He is being unjust. If his parents feed him, they are being merciful.
Here, we can see that if we aren’t aware of justice, we can easily take love for granted. In fact, we can easily think that love and food are owed us.
This is true not only of our individual families, but of the communal family, our society. It is not just for a person who can do a job to just sit at home and collect welfare. It is an injustice not only to the community, but also to God who gave each of us talents to be used.
Remember what Jesus said about the man who buried his talent: “You wicked and lazy servant! … Cast this worthless servant into the outer darkness where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Mt 24:14ff).
Each of us owes God. The highest form of justice, which is what we owe God, which is called religion. This is the work that we are to do for Him – the first three Commandments speak of this; the greek word for work is “liturgia” from which we get the word Liturgy. What we do here today is not simply because we love God; it’s also because it is the bare minimum that we owe Him.
Monetary and governmental systems like socialism, communism, and hyper-capitalism are unjust systems and have always been condemned by Jesus which is heard through His body, the Church.
If we do not like this, if our hearts are hardened to God’s justice, hear what He says through the prophet Malachi: “all the proud and all the evil doers will be stubble, [that day of judgment] that is coming will set them on fire” (3:19-20).
When I hear this and then I hear the line “God loves me,” I realize that His love is a powerful love, a deep love, a rising sun – the “sun of justice with its healing rays” (Mal 3:20). If I don’t have a deep love for God, at bare minimum I should have a fear of His name and his justice (see Mal 3:20). I should at least do my duty to Him and to others. I must not take it for granted or presume.
Doing one’s duty – to God, to family, to the community – helps us from becoming busy-bodies. Notice what Jesus says, people will be all in a huff about world events – they will be on top of politics and conspiracy theories and talks of the anti-Christ. They are wasting time. And that is an injustice to God who has given them time – time to grow and to love and to know Him.
And so Jesus tells us: don’t be busy-bodies; rather, do in your duty, keep the faith. “By your perseverance you will secure you lives” in heaven (Luke 21:19).
+ In the Name of the FAther and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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