27 October 2020
Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
We are so used to Christianity that we may forget how revolutionary a love we preach. When Paul urges a mutual love between spouses because “no one hates his own flesh, but rather nourishes and cherishes it” (Eph. 5:29), he is not drawing from a standard image of marriage at the time. Marriage was political, it was about property, it was about a joining of families and houses, of preserving one’s homestead. It was not about cherishing or romance. If this was not how people of the time considered the relationship between husband and wife, it was certainly not how they conceived of the relationship between God and the world.
Christian love of all sorts is a radical transformation. It forces us to reconsider who our neighbor is and what we owe him. It forces us to reconsider how we treat even our spouses and family members. It forces us to reconsider the love God has for creation. The love that Paul proclaims, the love that Christ came to reveal to us, is not the love that the world shows us. We must always remember the revolutionary nature of Christian love, and hold it unabashed before the world.