I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:34-35).
If we as Christians are truly following Christ, then our love for others should be noticeable. That high bar is not only personally challenging but challenging to all the Church. How often do we fail to even meet a lower expectation such as when Paul writes in Colossians 3:13 “bear with each other, and forgive one another.” Many people do not seem to even attempt to bear with others. Within our Catholic Church we see Catholic pundits quick to attack anything a Pope says. We see online liturgical wars over Communion in the hand, Latin, kneeling, singing, and even holding hands. Yes, Liturgical abuse does occur, and the Missal should be followed, but there is also an opposite extreme. Personal preference or interpretations should not be used to condemn others acting within liturgical allowance. For example, while it’s clear the Orans Posture is reserved only for the Priest at Mass, some enthusiastic enforcers of General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) may make someone question if they can ever hold their child’s hand at Mass.
The Ignatian Presupposition states, “it is necessary to suppose that every good Christian is more ready to put a good interpretation on another’s statement than to condemn it as false. If an orthodox construction cannot be put on a proposition, the one who made it should be asked how he understands it.” In other words, we are not only called to give others the benefit of the doubt, but we should also make an effort to interpret their statements or actions in an orthodox or positive manner. I wonder how many critics of any type of synodality have made this effort.
In his encyclical Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “Charity is at the heart of the Church’s social doctrine. Every responsibility and every commitment spelt out by that doctrine is derived from charity which, according to the teaching of Jesus, is the synthesis of the entire Law (cf. Mt 22:36- 40). It gives real substance to the personal relationship with God and with neighbor; it is the principle not only of micro-relationships (with friends, with family members or within small groups) but also of macro-relationships (social, economic and political ones). For the Church, instructed by the Gospel, charity is everything.”
If we cannot make any effort to understand a Pope before criticizing, if we cannot treat our brothers and sisters in the Church with respect or charity, how are we to evangelize to those outside the Church? Many people quickly condemn their neighbor for petty things like their landscaping, decorations, or taste in music. We bicker and fight or put down opposing voices on social media without an ounce of charity. Bearing with one another and actually searching for the good in what someone says is not always easy. It can be uncomfortable to pause our desire to speak and actually question our motives. Yet, Jesus did not try to make his disciples comfortable. He continually challenged them with difficult teachings and hard sayings.
If we are to live as Christ commanded, it surely won’t be easy. Jesus says in John 15:17-19, “These things I command you, so that you will love one another. If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
Today’s deep political divide causes many to choose political affiliation over Church teaching and Christian morality. Some conservatives defend the unborn child but shout for immigrants to be rounded up. Some liberals champion immigrant rights but embrace the worldly acceptance of sexual immorality and abortion. When the current U.S. President criticized Pope Leo XIV for speaking out for peace, some pundits and politicians suggested the Pope ought to stay out of politics. Pope Bendict XVI wrote in his first Encyclical, “God is love” (Deus Caritas Est), “the Church cannot and must not take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible. She cannot and must not replace the State. Yet at the same time she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice. She has to play her part through rational argument, and she has to reawaken the spiritual energy without which justice, which always demands sacrifice, cannot prevail and prosper.”
This language is not unique to Benedict XVI. It is based in scripture such as Acts 5:29 ““We must obey God rather than human beings!” and continues through Leo XIV and his predecessors. Pius XII wrote in Le Pelerinage De Lourdes that “the world, which today affords so many justifiable reasons for pride and hope, is also undergoing a terrible temptation to materialism which has been denounced by Our Predecessors and Ourselves on many occasions… To a society which in its public life often contests the supreme rights of God, to a society which would gain the whole world at the expense of its own soul and thus hasten to its own destruction, the Virgin Mother has sent a cry of alarm.”
Paul VI wrote in Populorum Progressio, “while the hierarchy has the role of teaching and authoritatively interpreting the moral laws and precepts that apply in this matter, the laity have the duty of using their own initiative and taking action in this area.” John Paull II continued the theme in by writing in Sollicitudo Rei Socialis that “the Church does not propose economic and political systems or programs… But the Church is an “expert in humanity,” and this leads her necessarily to extend her religious mission to the various fields in which men and women expend their efforts… the Church fulfills her mission to evangelize… when she proclaims the truth about Christ, about herself and about man, applying this truth to a concrete situation.” And now Leo XIV carries the same message stating in Magnifica Humanitas that the Church “cannot consider herself a stranger to the forces shaping society. On the contrary, the Church actively participates in the processes by which society grows and is organized.”
Unlike what some on the left suggest, morality is not arbitrary. Unlike what some on the right suggest, moral certitude is not exclusively theirs. The Church propose an absolute Truth not only revealed by Christ but embodied by Jesus. Jesus famously said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Benedict XVI added, “Only a humanism open to the Absolute can guide us in the promotion and building of forms of social and civic life — structures, institutions, culture and ethos — without exposing us to the risk of becoming ensnared by the fashions of the moment.” No political or secular ideology possesses a monopoly on this absolute Truth. It is the Church that possesses the fullness of the Truth as revealed by God. That Truth not only dictates morality but it demands love of neighbor manifested through charity in deed and understanding. In Caritas in Veritate Bendict added, “Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity.”
Our lives should look different than non-Christians. How we behave in public, on social media, where we spend our time and money should all reflect that we are followers of Christ. Do we spend our hard-earned money on gambling and drinking or put sports on an altar in our heart and mind while failing to join the Body of Christ on Sundays. Are we quick to criticize without making the effort to understand? We ae called to “bear with each other, and forgive one another.” If we want others to respect and even consider Christianity, our faith must be orthodox but also attractive.
This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
