[Craic] reflection: The Essential Commandments.

[Arthur Blomme]

I would like to share with you my reflection on this Sunday's readings.



  The Essential Commandments

By Art Blomme Oct 31,2024

This Sunday’s Gospel relates the two commandments that form the essence 
of Christian faith.

    /"The first is, `Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one;
    and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with
    all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.'/

With this commandment we acknowledge that ultimate reality is outside of 
our self (a power greater than our self) and exhorts us to love ultimate 
reality with all our being.It is a contemplation through which we 
abandon our inclination towards self-aggrandizement or self-deprecation.

    /The second is this, `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'
    There is no other commandment greater than these."/

This commandment is the essential practice that unifies us as a 
communion of faithful. It breaks down the barriers that separate us from 
one another.We go beyond tolerating or accepting the other to loving the 
other.

Joan Chitiser once stated that the strong impulse toward orthodoxy is a 
product of the Council of Nicaea.Before Constantine’s council having one 
unified set of beliefs was not an issue for most Christians. More 
important than beliefs was orthopraxis or the practice of obeying these 
essential commandments.

While a common set of beliefs served to unite the Holy Roman Empire into 
a coherent organization,it also created a division between believers and 
nonbelievers.Whereas Jesus called us to radical inclusivity, the creed 
teaches us to exclude people based on their beliefs. It thus gives us a 
false notion of Communion that unites us by excluding the other.

Defining ourselves by who we exclude remains a prominent part of our 
culture today. Think of the nasty polarization between the left and the 
right in our countries politics. We remain divided by creed, by party 
politics and the loyalties that lead us to support war with our 
neighbours.We are easily manipulated by worldly powers who exacerbate 
our fear of other.

In the working document of the Synod on Synodality passage 50 voices 
this concern over the exclusion of those with different beliefs from the 
Body of Christ.

    50./Dialogue between religions and with cultures is not external to
    the synodal journey but is part of its call to live closer
    relations, given that "At all times and in every nation whoever
    fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God" (LG 9).
    Therefore, the exchange of gifts is not limited to the Christian
    Churches because an authentic Catholicity broadens the horizon and
    calls for the willingness to embrace those factors that promote
    life, peace, justice, and integral human development present in
    other cultures and religious traditions./

The document reminds us that the body of Christ extends beyond the 
Christian churches to include the gifts of all peoples who are faithful 
in the practice of these two most important commandments voiced in the 
Gospels by Jesus of Nazareth.

Who all do you think participates with you in the Body of Christ today? 
With whom are you in Communion?
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.integralshift.ca/pipermail/craic-integralshift.ca/attachments/20241102/dfebae28/attachment-0001.htm>