Keeping God’s Commandments, Rain or Shine

There is a commercial about a retirement community that features an elderly couple taking their turn throwing a dinner party for their fellow sushi-loving neighbors. A beautiful sunset highlights the silver hair (and scalps) of the happy participants who can’t seem to wait until it is their turn to reciprocate. The scene is one of a harmonious group of like-minded pensioners enjoying each other’s company in perfect weather. If a storm cloud suddenly appears, or if a non-sushi lover happens upon the set, production is paused, and the offending elements are dealt with.

Love Your Enemies

Such is the nature of advertising. In real life, rainy days and unrefined neighbors present themselves regularly. The two great commandments to love God and neighbor extend beyond the people, places, and things we prefer in our lives. Jesus explains how love is to be shared in the Gospel of Matthew:

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors[ do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:43-48 NABRE)

Invite the Poor

Being “perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” is impossible without God’s help. Even then, inviting enemies who persecute you to your next dinner party might be too much of a leap right away. We can make sure, steady movements toward perfection “through Him, with Him, and in Him” in God’s timing. Perhaps inviting those who cannot reciprocate readily for whatever reason would be a good first step. Jesus takes this concept of “casting a wider net” in our invitations to the extreme to emphasize how things work in God’s economy:

When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. (Luke 14:12-14)

Look Beyond the Commandments

Keeping God’s commandments is a full-time job and cannot be accomplished without His grace and direction. Just as the sun shines on the good and the bad alike, God’s loving gaze is perpetually cast on the whole of humankind. As believers, we are called to look beyond our limited field of vision as to how we treat our brothers and sisters in this world, while we await to be seated at the great eschatological banquet in Heaven in the next. The advice given to the rich young man in the Gospel According to Matthew applies to all seeking to entrance into eternal life by keeping God’s commandments:

Then someone came to [Jesus] and said, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

The young man said to him, “I have kept all these; what do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions. Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, “Then who can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:16-26 NRSVCE)

Let us pray for the grace and strength to keep the great commandments to love God and neighbor, come rain or come shine. As a postscript, this piece was written mostly during the rain that Hurricane Ian delivered on September 28th, 2022.