We Are Made For More

Jesus continues to tell us that we are made for more. Obedience to love is the first command in living a virtuous life. Today he continues to unpack the commandments with “extra” insight that calls us to do more. Seven out of the Ten Commandments focus on how we should treat one another and only the first three focus on God. Therefore, it seems pretty darn paramount, to God, that we get our relationships with one another right. I think the answer is blatantly before us even though it may be difficult to see. The order of the Commandments is no mistake and is the proper order for living the virtuous life. It is only when this proper order is in place that we can really start to lean into those extra, above and beyond, made for more things that Jesus is constantly teaching us about. The order is: Love God first and before ALL others, His name is to be honored, set aside one day a week just for Him….then treatment of family, friends, and strangers will be in their right order, flowing out of and from pure and total love. 

Today’s commandment is “you shall not commit adultery” and I think it is safe to say that we all completely understand the magnitude of this sin. It seems like we are well versed on the “badness” of adultery and all the extra ways that we might commit adultery in our thoughts, words, actions, etc. I’d like to go a little deeper. 

I know for me, I treat people differently based on whatever commonality I have with them. For example, if you are a Notre Dame fan, it is very likely that I will give you the shirt off my back if you ever need it. And obviously, if you are from Hawaii, we must be and probably are related so you might just be remembered in my last will and testament. Oh, you walked the Camino de Santiago? We are now best friends for life and you are stuck with me forever. I even connect over silly and frivolous things like, “Your favorite color is yellow? Here’s a pint of my blood.” “You love guacamole too? I’m pretty sure we are soul mates!” I think the break down that leads us to unfaithfulness of any sort – adultery, betrayal, gossip, slander, lying – can be found in our inability to connect over the one commonality that we all share.  We are God’s masterpiece, created in Their image, and we are all one in Love. The same Spirit that breathed life into the universe resides in you and me and in every single human person ever created. Our failure to honor that Spirit in one another is exactly how we can be “unfaithful” to one another. 

My friend Dotti says that if we truly believed that each one of us is a living tabernacle, we too, would bow in reverence to one another the same way we bow in church before the tabernacle. I feel like we would never feel the temptation to “use” each other again if we really believed this. Unfaithfulness is essentially using others for something that is devoid in ourselves and if we were properly ordered, we would know that first and only, God fulfills all that is missing. 

We are made for more and it is up to us to take the message of today’s gospel to heart. I honor the Spirit of the living God in you, today, and I bow in reverence to that Spirit. I promise to honor you as a masterpiece created in complete love and I pray that you will do the same to me. It is well with my soul. 

Reading 1 2 COR 4:7-15

Brothers and sisters:
We hold this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.
We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained;
perplexed, but not driven to despair;
persecuted, but not abandoned;
struck down, but not destroyed;
always carrying about in the Body the dying of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.
For we who live are constantly being given up to death
for the sake of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

So death is at work in us, but life in you.
Since, then, we have the same spirit of faith,
according to what is written, "I believed, therefore I spoke,"
we too believe and therefore speak,
knowing that the one who raised the Lord Jesus
will raise us also with Jesus
and place us with you in his presence.
Everything indeed is for you,
so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people
may cause the thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God.

Responsorial Psalm PS 116:10-11, 15-16, 17-18

R.(17a) To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I believed, even when I said,
"I am greatly afflicted";
I said in my alarm,
"No man is dependable." 
R. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.
R. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people. 
R. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.

AlleluiaPHIL 2:15D, 16A

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Shine like lights in the world,
as you hold on to the word of life.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MT 5:27-32

Jesus said to his disciples:
"You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery.
But I say to you, 
everyone who looks at a woman with lust
has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If your right eye causes you to sin, 
tear it out and throw it away.
It is better for you to lose one of your members
than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.
And if your right hand causes you to sin, 
cut it off and throw it away.
It is better for you to lose one of your members
than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.

"It was also said,
Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce.
But I say to you,
whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful)
causes her to commit adultery,
and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery."