WEDNESDAY, THIRTY FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Rom 13: 8-10 Ps 112 : 1-2, 4-5, 9 Lk 14: 25-33
AGAPE LOVE
In the first reading, Paul makes a radical claim: “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” He reduces all commandments to one supreme duty, that of love. Yet this is no sentimental love. The Greek agape implies a deliberate, sacrificial choice to seek another’s good, regardless of feeling. This demanding vision of love finds its fullest expression in the Gospel, where Jesus startles the crowds by declaring the true discipleship requires hating family and even life itself. Like a builder counting costs or a king assessing battle forces, we must reckon with love’s price.
From this we learn that:
- Love is a debt we never get rid of: Paul says we remain perpetual debtors to love. While financial debts can be repaid, love’s debt only grows; the more we love, the more we see how much love is still owed.
- Love is the fulfilment of the Law: When Paul says love fulfils commandments against adultery, murder, and theft, he reveals that true love protects others – their marriages, lives, and property. Love is not lawless; rather, it goes beyond legal requirements, overflowing into care and compassion.
- Love demands everything: To love as Christ loves by placing God first even when it strains human ties, requires surrendering our entire lives. Half-hearted love collapses like an unfinished tower or loses like an outnumbered army.
Today, Christ asks us the same question He asked the crowds: “Can you pay love’s price? Not with fleeting emotions, but with the coin of your whole being?” For in the economy of grace, the love that costs us everything is the only love that fulfils everything. As Bonhoeffer wrote, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” Yet this death to self is the birth of true love; the kind that never fails.
Response: It goes well for the man who deals generously and lends.
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