Love? In This Economy?
Reflection on the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time by Fr Earl Allyson Valdez
I would have wanted this quote from a recent film to remain a joke, but sadly, this reflects much of what people feel nowadays. I’m not talking about putting a price on romantic relationships and intimate encounters, though they are part of that. However, what I’m more concerned with is that we find ourselves too disillusioned by the current state of the world, that sometimes, our own idea of “practicality” takes over everything.
What I mean is this: more often, we forget, or worse, refuse, to care about other people because “life is difficult.” In fact, a group of experts from the Korea University published a paper pointed out that it’s a biological phenomenon. Social stress induces excessive amounts of cortisol in our brain, which could be responsible for blocking out empathy and resorting to survival and self-sustenance.
Image from The Collector
But I believe it goes beyond immediate physical reactions. At times, we have this view that the world is chaotic enough that the first thing that we have to take care of is our own selves and our sanity. There is nothing wrong with that, except that we tend to think that truly alive and surviving means solely to take care of ourselves and keep surviving. In other words, our personal spaces close in and we leave no room to respond to the needs of others or, even in the bare minimum, to live and be with them.
The Gospel, however, calls us to a different way of life, as the Lord reminds us of the guide to living a true Christian life. The summary of the commandments tell us that love of God and love of others could not be separated from each other. If we truly profess our faith in God, then this faith must become manifest and made alive through the things that we do towards and for each other.
Photo from Wikipedia
In fact, it stands to reason that we do this, because at the end of the day, one of the things that truly makes us human is the fact that we live together not just to survive, but to truly live a human life. While the first reading are acts of compassion that we ought to be aware of because the Lord first does them to the people of Israel, we also do not forget an underlying truth: the people of Israel lived not because they were self-sufficient but because an Other: the Lord, accompanied them in the journey toward becoming a people in the first place. It is his compassion that made them a people, and he made it clear that if they are going to survive, they have to truly be a people, that is, as a community of persons who live with each other and aid each other.
The second reading emphasizes this all the more, as St. Paul recognizes that we are a people who are delivered by Christ’s own self-giving. He calls us, therefore, to exercise this self-giving in order to give in service to others, through means great and small.
Poussin, “The Institution of the Eucharist”Image from Wikimedia
Reflecting on these, perhaps it is time for us to consider one way of truly surviving and living life amidst the chaos. Is it possible that life-giving, sacrifice, and a view of life as one that is commonly shared, the true keys to survival? If our ancestors have gone through the hardest times not as individuals but as people, then why shouldn’t we in a world that is full of uncertainty? If Our Lord teaches the law of love, first above all, then why should we not do the same when they can give life to others? If we can just be people who are at each other’s disposal, how higher will our chances of survival be when we do not live alone and instead share what we have and who we are. We may need to pay more attention to the quality of relationships we have, since it is through these deep and intimate relationships that we become willing to accommodate others and make space for them in our daily lives.
With this, may we have hearts, minds, and hearts that are ready to receive the love of the Lord and share it with others in our own distinct ways. Perhaps, the best antidote to these chaotic times is not our own self-centered concerns, but in our relationships. Perhaps, we could also see that what we truly need right now in a chaotic world is the support, rather than the indifference we have, for others. We ask for the grace to be able to love and share who we are and what we have to each other, most especially in this economy we live in, in this chaotic world that ought to see compassion and community at work rather than division and self-centeredness.
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