WEEK 18 05 – Year I
Faith that Obeys and Follows:
Memorial of St Clare
(Dt 4:32-40; Ps 77; Mt 16:24-28)
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A theologian was asked what he thought would be a simple summary of faith that everyone would understand. He responded with the children’s hymn, “Jesus loves me, this I know, ‘cause the bible tells me so.” That, he said, is the foundation from which all else flows.
The readings today invite us to appreciate how much God has and does love us, and to respond in two ways: obeying God by keeping God’s commandments, and following Jesus even to the cross.
In the first reading from Deuteronomy, Moses earnestly exhorts the people to remember God’s mighty deeds, how much God loved them in delivering them from slavery. God’s plan was that they would actually be icons of God in the world and reveal God’s true self to the pagan nations around them as God’s chosen people.
Their response was to obey God by keeping God’s statutes and commandments. That would be the Ten Commandments, with special attention to the first commandment that Moses points out: they were to believe in the one true God and to have no other false gods or idols in their lives. Those false gods, since time immemorial, have been the abuse of wealth, fame and power. History over and over has shown that the Israelites, from the beginning, fell for those false gods and failed to keep the commandments.
In the gospel, we see Jesus, the one sent by the Father, the Father’s only Son, who would reveal to humanity the true nature of God on the Cross – mercy, compassion, unconditional love, forgiveness and total non-violence. As St Paul tells us, Jesus is the image of the unseen God, and now we are to believe in him and follow him.
To follow Jesus is to obey his commandments that can be summarized by the following: love God with our whole being, love our neighbor as we love ourselves, love one another as Jesus himself has loved us, and above all, love our enemies by forgiving them from the heart.
Jesus then sets the bar even higher – we are to take up our cross and follow him. That is to accept some inconvenience and suffering in our lives the way he did – without resentment or bitterness. That makes our suffering redemptive, connected to his, and gives our suffering profound meaning and purpose.
Step 11 of the 12 Step program captures the essence of all this teaching: “Sought to improve our conscious contact with God through prayer and meditation, seeking only the knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry it out.”
St Clare
St. Clare, whom we honour today, certainly had faith the size of a mustard seed that grew to move mountains. She was born in Assisi about the year 1193. At the age of 18, she heard a sermon preached by Francis of Assisi and committed herself to a life of poverty. On Passion Sunday 1212 she secretly left home and went to the place where Francis lived with his community. Before the altar in the little church, she received the habit from him, had her hair cut, and went to live in a nearby Benedictine convent.
Clare was joined by her younger sisters Agnes and others, and the small community moved to San Damiano, near Assisi. Soon after, Clare’s mother and sister Beatrice also joined them. In 1215, Clare was made abbess of the Poor Clares. The women modelled their life on the ideals of St. Francis. They did without shoes, slept on the ground and never ate meat. Before long, other houses were founded in several countries.
Francis taught all his friars’ needs should be met solely from daily contributions. It was Clare’s great desire that her community also practise radical poverty. For 40 years Clare was abbess and never wavered from caring for her community or from assisting Francis. She received papal approval for her own Rule the day before she died – the first rule written by a woman for women. She was credited with many miracles and canonized just two years after her death.
The Eucharist is a wonderful way to believe in Jesus, to love him and to obey him, for he commanded us to do this in memory of him. As Ron Rolheiser wrote, this is our one great act of fidelity throughout the ages – the one thing we have consistently done.
As we celebrate today, let us pray for the faith to not only remember how much God has loved us, but to also respond to that love by keeping the commandment to love as Jesus has loved us, and to follow him to the Cross.
