The Intelligence of the World and the Wisdom of God: Love is the only Law!
Sirach 15:15-20; 1 Cor 2:6-10; Matthew 5:17-35
There are many ways to kill a rat, the saying goes; today, there are humane ways of doing it and a reckless way. All roads lead to Rome, according to the Romans, but all rails lead to the sea, according to the Africans’ experience of colonial railways. All peoples have their wisdom, but there is only one Wisdom of God that leads to God – the Wisdom revealed by Jesus Christ. This Wisdom of God is our subject.
The combination of two Greek words, “Philos” (love) and “Sophia” (wisdom), provides us with the etymological meaning of Philosophy – “love of wisdom.” Since there are three Greek words for love, Eros (erotic love), Philos (love as friendship) and Agapè (charity or sacrificial love), it follows that Philosophy, from its etymological meaning, encourages human beings to be friends with one another. In other words, human beings should learn the means of living with other human beings as friends. Simply put, it teaches earthly living, with no regard for heaven or living with God forever.
Living in Nigeria today shows evidence of the mastery of this kind of wisdom, philosophical wisdom: cronyism, nepotism, favoritism, tribalism, sexism, religious bigotry, etc. In fact,”partism” has joined the list: you need to belong to “APC,” the political party in power, not to be probed or investigated by the government or EFCC. Yes, “love of friendship,” even in evil, has become the order of the day; that is the new wisdom, that is the way of living. To such Nigerians and philosophers, whose understanding of wisdom simply limits itself to earthly living and gains, there is something superior offered by the liturgy of this Sunday – the Wisdom of God.
Judeo-Christian Wisdom provides us with a different kind of wisdom, from that showcase by human philosophy. According to the first reading, the basic form of wisdom is to see life as a journey on two possible tracks – a path to God and a path away from God: the path of goodness and the path of evil. But there is a fundamental principle, inbuilt in every human being – freedom of choice, a marvelous gift of God. The problem then is not the two-ways, but the choice of the way each human being has got to make. In essence, what is the Christian meaning of “freedom”?
Our first reading starts out with the idea of freedom: “If you choose, you can keep the commandments, they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live” (Sirach 15:15). The Christian path to life is the commandments of God. For those who keep the hope of living forever with God, they are known through what they do – they keep God’s commandments. Why? They trust in God, that he knows the way that is right for them, and that leads back to God. No wonder we often sing: “trust and obey, for there is no other way . . .” Then, how are we to understand Christian “freedom”? Why should there be two roads or paths, and one is punished for taking one or the other? Here is the answer, from our first reading: “No one does he command to act unjustly, to none does he give license to sin” (Sirach 15:20).
In reality, there is only one way in life and to life: we either choose to live or choose to die! By choosing death, we preclude and exclude life. Sirach puts it beautifully: “Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him” (Sirach 15:17). I maintain that there is only “one way” because life has been given to us from the begin of time and beginning of our existence. There is only one choice left – rejection of life, which means death! “Life” is God’s gift to each one of us, “death” is the consequence of our personal and individual choices, not God’s or the devil’s. The devil made his own choice, so must you and I. On account of this, the fact that God created life and not death, Sirach’s statement is very true: “No one does he command to act unjustly, to none does he give license to sin” (Sirach 15:20).
The importance of God’s commandments cannot be over-emphasized. In fact, Jesus makes himself the crusader of fidelity to God’s law. This is part of what our gospel today says: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). This statement makes sense because, if the commandments lead to life, and Jesus offers us life, then he cannot but defend the law, the means to life. By implication, lawlessness equals death and ungodliness. Speaking of lawlessness, what does one make of Nigerian or African politicians? God save us!
A very important point not to miss is Jesus’ claim that he has come “to fill the law and the prophets.” This means that Jesus will give them a new or fresh understanding. As a matter of fact, the Beatitudes, Matthew 5-7, are Jesus’ reform agenda of what was old to bring it up to speed with God’s intention for his laws. For instance, it is easier to avoid adultery than not to look at a woman lustfully; much easier not to commit murder than not to be angry with one’s neighbour or to insult one’s neighbour and enemies.
If we look at the examples of the laws mentioned in today’s gospel, “murder” and “adultery,” one notices a hidden message of Christ: one maybe physically alive, but spiritually dead! “Murder” and “adultery” are personal or self-inflicted death sentences on their perpetrators: God alone is the author of “life,” and he alone can take it; to take “life” is to opt for death. Also, every adultery/fornication is mortal because it kills the life of the body by separating it from the soul – the immortality of the soul with God. For this reason, these sins need immediate reconciliation with God. But how many political and hateful assassinations and abortions take place every single day? How many souls are separated from their bodies on account of adultery and fornication? Of course, adultery and fornication are harbingers for abortion and murder.
All hope is not lost. Our second reading argues in favour of hope and courage, in a demoralizing world. According to Paul, “we speak God’s wisdom, mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory, . . . What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him, this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.”
What does Paul mean by “what God has prepared for those who love him, this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.” He means that in Jesus Christ, God reveals the law and logic of life to all the living – the path of love or law of love. After all, Jesus summarizes the laws of God as “love of God and neighbour.” In other words, Christian philosophy of life is zooagapè: zoo (life) and agapè (love/charity) – a life of love/charity.
The fulfilment of “the law and the prophets” is Jesus’ inauguration of the era of love, sacrificial love. Jesus demonstrates the kind of love he expects of Christians by dying for them and living them the example of his death, innocent though he was, he died for sinners.