Putting faith into action

We are all familiar with the golden rule, "Love your neighbour as yourself" This seems to be universal to not only the Judeo-Christian tradition but finds echoes in many other traditions as well. It fundamentally calls us to a radical standpoint where we consider the needs of another as equal to our own. The readings for this weekend tackle this in many different ways. When God speaks to Moses he asks him to consider those who are in greatest need and not to take advantage of their disadvantage. It calls us to consider what is most needed by the person on this day. Our listening to the person is not just a matter of hearing what they have to say but responding to their fundamental human need of food, shelter and clothing. 

St Paul then goes on to show how our lives are called to become a living witness to the Good News even at times when we might be misunderstood, marginalised or oppressed ourselves. The call is not just one of seeking to do good for another but rather that by our stance of life that we seek to be good. To be people who through our relationship with Jesus Christ seek to bring our lives into harmony with the mercy of God. Our lives bear witness to the fact that we are people called into a deep and abiding relationship with the living God.

This is why Jesus talks about two commandments, that we must love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind and our neighbour as ourselves. This calls us to be in a relationship with God which engages our affections, our bodies and our minds. This calls for a holistic appreciation that God uses the language of the heart, the language of the body and the language of the mind to give expression to our faith. We are called to be incarnate people who engage fully as the person we are not as the person we think we should be. There is also then a recognition that our faith is deeply communal and that it calls us to be people who are united together by God. The good we seek for ourselves is not one of splendid isolation but one which unites us with the transcendent and immanent reality of God who is revealed to us each day through the life of another.