It would be an era where
love would be the mainspring powering the life and movement of those who
yielded themselves to God.
It also happened that it would be an era at complete
variance with any self-promoting Pharisaic ideal. There is no room or margin
available for self-promotion in a world of self-sacrifice.
Jesus plainly stated this law of love to the lawyer that
tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the
greatest?” Jesus answered him saying, “You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is
the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love
your neighbor as yourself. On these two hang all the law and the prophets.” [Matthew
22:34-40]
In his life and earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus set into
motion a way of life that was completely countercultural during his time; not
only for the little Nation of Israel but also for the nations of the entire
world.
In launching this movement, Jesus fulfilled all the
righteous judicial requirements necessary to purchase, once and forever, the
salvation of mankind. He also, in making this purchase with his own sufferings
and blood, confirmed and carried forward, for all of time, the unchangeable
moral laws that God the Father carved into stone tablets on Mount Sinai for
Moses to give to the Israelites.
This way of life modeled by Jesus, his Apostles and
disciples, and untold thousands across the ages is as countercultural today as
it was when Jesus sat down on the side of Mount Eremos and began teaching those
who had begun to follow him. This way of life has lost none of its meaning over
the millennia. It refuses to get lost in the shuffle of modern charlatans that
weave tales and promise lives characterized by fortune and devoid of suffering.
This way of life will never bow down to the false gods of materialistic modernism or bend a knee to the false gods of hedonism.
This way of life refuses to yield or surrender the moral principles insisted
upon by our God who never changes and is not so fickle as to change his mind
about what he has already decreed.
God is not a
human being, that he should lie,
or a mortal,
that he should change his mind.
Has he
promised, and will he not do it?
Has he spoken,
and will he not fulfill it? Numbers 23:19
Every generous
act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the
Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
James 1:7
Jesus Christ is
the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8
It is before this holy, eternal, and unchanging God that
we must all one day give account for what we have done both for and against the
unchangeable moral expectations that are clearly laid down for us and confirmed
in the life of the Living Word.
Jesus asks a question at the end of the Parable of the
Widow and the Unjust Judge. He asks, “And yet, when the Son of Man comes,
will he find faith on earth?” Luke 18:1-8
What will he find when he returns? Will he find a people
living the way of life that he himself modeled as an example? Or will he find a
people meandering about, rationalizing, picking, and choosing only what parts
of this way of life that can be bent in a way that makes them culturally
comfortable?
In my mind’s eye, I can see him sitting there on that big
hill with a crowd of people surrounding him.
They are mostly just poor hand-to-mouth common
folk, mostly just everyday hard working souls making do day by day; except for the few around the edges of the crowd that look like some of
the religious rulers of the day. While most of the people are intently quietly
listening, these few better dressed ones listen a little then confer among
themselves, almost as though they are trying to find some heresy or blasphemy
in the words of the Teacher.
I am going up on Mount Eremos for a while.
I feel the need to get closer to Jesus, closer than I have
ever been. I feel the need to simply sit at his feet and learn better of this
countercultural way of life that he teaches. I feel the need to know him more
intimately than ever before. Just as the Apostle Paul wrote, “I want to know
Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by
becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from
the dead.” [Philippians 3:10-11]
There is a lot of room up on the big hillside where Jesus is sitting.
Come along
with me.
++++++++++
I had planned to launch this series from out on the road.
Covid-19, however, changed our plans to live as Bedouins for a long season out
and about on something of a pilgrimage. [Alas! How the best laid plans of mice
and men do gang aft agley.] So, I am launching UP ON MOUNT EREMOS from here at
our hermitage/cabin.
These written reflections on the Sermon on the Mount at
Oblate Reflections will also be accompanied by a video format on my Psalty
Catholic YouTube channel.
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