what's your rule of life?

 Homily

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time A

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

25 October 2020

AMDG +JMJ +m

Just do it. I have a dream.  Make America Great Again.  Yes we can. 

Can you match the slogan with the brand or the person?  I bet you can.  Certain words fit.  Some phrases define or capture the essence of a thing, or the personality or purpose of a person.

What about you?  What is your life's motto?  What is your unique why?  What is the one rule that you live by? What phrase do you want on your tombstone?

These are some of my favorite questions in spiritual direction.  I think St. John Paul II answered them best.  In three words he captured his key relationship, identity and mission.  Totus Tuus Maria.  Who loves you, John Paul?  Mary does.  Who are you, John Paul?  I'm totally hers.  What is your mission, John Paul?  I live to become totally hers.  He is the gold standard for personal mottos.  

Go ahead and give it a shot. What is your life's motto?  What is the lens through which you look at life?  What words capture how you lay hold of the gift of your life?

I like the motto I have now, but I don't think it's my final final.  Compete in what matters to God.  It's working for me now, but I'm still editing.  I'm open to improving it if something better comes along.

At St. Lawrence we have defined a unique why, a way of being the Catholic Church at KU.  We exist to guide great stories.  This year we are trying to come up with a couple house rules that sum up in a compelling, succinct and memorable way our culture and operating values.  

Jesus was asked to do the same.  Of the 613 rules in the law, which one is the greatest, Jesus?  What is the essential rule to live by, that captures the essence of the entire law?

Believe it or not, Jesus actually answers the question.  He's usually the best at begging the question.  This time he answers directly.  He distills 613 rules into two.  Love God and the image of God in yourself and your neighbor.  Later he will give us, his disciples a new commandment.  Love one another as I have loved you.

Whatever rule or motto you come up with for your life, it has to increase your capacity to love.  If not, your life is a joke.  St. Paul put it this way.  If I have life by the tail, but have not love, I should be roundly mocked.  Love is ultimate.  Love is everything.  It is who God is, in whose image we are made.  Love is our origin, our constant calling, and our ultimate perfection.

Let me put it this way.  What if you were offered the chance to solve all the problems plaguing mankind in 2020.  You get to be the hero that fixes this miserable year.  In return you simply have to give up your freedom and capacity to love.  Nobody would take that deal.  You should not take that deal.  Give me instead the problems inherent in the freedom to love.  Bring it on.  Love is worth that much.  It's worth it all.

Love is the ground and meaning of life.  There might be existence, but no life, if we did not have the capacity to fall in love, be loved, and to love in return.  

As Jesus says, love is what ultimately relates us to God.  So the real measure of our life, in the end, is how much we love God.  Go ahead and give yourself a score today.  How much do you love God?  How much do you love His image in yourself and your neighbor?  For me it's a 3, and a 2.  I want to love God and his image in others so much more than I do now. What's your number?

Now come up with a rule of life, a life's motto, that can transform that number into a 10.  If you can do that, you have the key to eternal life.

What is your life's motto?