A few years ago I was wondering how to avoid becoming decrepit faster than my age would indicate. Because my workload mainly involves mental rather than physical powers, one unfortunate side-effect was gradual muscle atrophy in my upper body. The obvious solution was a regular exercise in the gym but the very thought of that was putting me off; I find that kind of activity extremely boring. Then, quite accidentally I spotted a bow in a shop and thought that archery could be the answer. I set out on researching it, and the more I learned about archery the more I was convinced that it was my \u2018go-to\u2019 exercise. A couple of weeks later some essential equipment arrived at my place and I started my training. The initial stages were literally \u2018hit-and-miss\u2019 which proved costly – arrows aren\u2019t cheap. With the added financial motivation, I made quick progress and very quickly my upper body got stronger; archery was mentally beneficial too. A success story, right? Not entirely\u2026 Soon I found out that my left shoulder muscles were significantly more developed than the other ones; my left arm was the one I used to draw the bow. My physical development was a bit lopsided…<\/p>\n
\u2018Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?\u2019<\/em> – Jesus was once asked by an expert in the Jewish law. Most of us know Jesus\u2019 answer by heart: \u2018You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. […] You shall love your neighbour as yourself.\u2019 <\/em>\u00a0Jesus then concluded that \u2018on these two commandments hang all the law.\u2019 (Matthew 22:36-40)<\/em> So, these are the two interconnected principles of our faith; they create the framework that we have to fill in more concrete ways. Somehow it\u2019s easier to fulfil the first part of this dual commandment. We can express the love of God through various forms of devotion and pieties; some of them might be repetitive and boring but they are still easier to do than dealing with people and any subsequent complications. To a certain extent, such a model of religious life was promoted and taught in the Church for quite a while. Such devotions and pieties are not wrong in their own right, but they can lead to lopsided spiritual development when they are practised for their own sake. In that case, the living faith is replaced by ritualistic religion; it can be self-gratifying but quite dead. Today\u2019s gospel casts some light on the proper understanding of this dual commandment: \u2018If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love […] This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you.\u2019<\/em> This is consistent with the teaching of Jesus in the gospels and summarised rather well by St John: \u2018those who do not love brothers whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. […] Those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.\u2019 (1 John 4:20-21)<\/em><\/p>\n Before I\u2019m accused of throwing away the legacy of the Church, let\u2019s look closer at today\u2019s gospel reading. The key phrase is this: \u2018This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you.\u2019 <\/em>The word commandment<\/em> derives from the verb to command<\/em> which means to direct with specific authority or prerogative<\/em>. Jesus\u2019 specific authority comes from His sacrifice: \u2018as I have loved you.\u2019<\/em> The extent of the sacrifice He expressed in this sentence: \u2018A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.\u2019<\/em> The charitable love of thy neighbour is the way to express the love of God. In that case, what\u2019s the point of pieties and devotions? Just one word: crucial. If and when used properly.<\/p>\n We all know from experience that the love of thy neighbour can be challenging, difficult or even seemingly impossible. Quite often it requires a whole range of skills, like patience, perseverance, diplomacy – to list just a few. To make it worse, many a time all our efforts seem to bring none of the expected effects, sometimes they can make things worse. After so many failed attempts, how do you convince yourself that it\u2019s still worth trying? That\u2019s where various devotions and pieties can help in various ways. My first few weeks in Aberdeen were really challenging and I often despaired, so I prayed to St Jude, the patron saint of lost causes and – over two years later – I\u2019m still in Aberdeen, to my parishioners\u2019 desperation. Meditation helps me to look deeper into my heart and motivations; the word of God sometimes challenges me, sometimes offers consolation\u2026 We can compare devotions and pieties to a variety of equipment in the gym. Used properly, they can be very beneficial; when misused they can do more harm than good.<\/p>\n Another challenge with the love of thy neighbour is a popular and common misunderstanding that it\u2019s measured by the intensity of positive emotions. It\u2019s nice when such positive feelings accompany our efforts but that\u2019s misleading. Love is an act of my will; it\u2019s a decision to actively seek someone else\u2019s good and avoid harming. There\u2019s \u2018no greater love than to lay down life.\u2019<\/em> If I let my selfishness die a bit every day, that will suffice.<\/p>\n Image by suju-foto<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A few years ago I was wondering how to avoid becoming decrepit faster than my age would indicate. Because my workload mainly involves mental rather than physical powers, one unfortunate side-effect was gradual muscle atrophy in my upper body. The obvious solution was a regular exercise in the gym but the very thought of that was putting me off; I find that kind of activity extremely boring. Then, quite accidentally I spotted a bow in a shop and thought that archery could be the answer. I set out on researching it, and the more I learned about archery the more I was convinced that it was my \u2018go-to\u2019 exercise. A couple of weeks later some essential equipment arrived at my place and I started my training. The initial stages were literally \u2018hit-and-miss\u2019 which proved costly – arrows aren\u2019t cheap. With the added financial motivation, I made quick progress and very quickly my upper body got stronger; archery was mentally beneficial too. A success story, right? Not entirely\u2026 Soon I found out that my left shoulder muscles were significantly more developed than the other ones; my left arm was the one I used to draw the bow. My physical development was a bit lopsided…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon","category-year-b"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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