Laws are external, not the core

You may have heard expressions like, “a law-abiding citizen,” “a religious who keeps the rules,” “doing God’s will by obeying the rules,” etc.

Do you think the meaning of maturity or holiness is to obey rules and regulations?

Is it obeying the rules that gave us a Francis of Assisi or a Don Bosco or a Mahatma Gandhi or a Carlo Acutis?

When a rich man who admired Jesus came to meet Him, and asked how he could join Him, Jesus gave him an unexpected and disturbing answer: Sell your riches, give it to the poor and come! The wealthy guy was not ready to give up his possessions.

Who, according to you, is a “good” priest or religious or bishop or lay person? The one who keeps the time-table, observes liturgical regulations, wears the official habit, is careful not to break any rules, or the one who cares for the destitute, loves everyone in the community (not just those of his ethnicity or whatever), forgives and helps those who have hurt him/her, speaks up for justice, leads a simple life and takes initiative to help people in need?

What is goodness or holiness according to you?

What defines it best for you—rules and regulations or goodness of heart?

Any group of human beings—a family, a country, a religious order, a diocese, an army, a business group—needs some rules and regulations. Just think of traffic rules. We cannot drive safely if each driver goes wherever he or she feels like.

But just driving on the left will not make me a good human being or a good citizen. If I keep traffic rules, but cheat, steal, deceive or murder, I am by no means a good citizen.  I will be a problem, and can become a terror.

Similarly, if I want to follow Jesus—as a lay person or a church leader or priest or religious —what shows my fidelity is not a rule book, but a life of love and compassion. If I recite the prescribed psalms, wear the cassock and a chasuble for Mass, but gossip during breakfast, I am a counter-witness, not a follower of Christ. At the end of my life, I will not be judged on what I wore or which page of the breviary or missal I read, but on how I treated the weak and the poor.

Religiosity does not consist mainly in our church-going, but in a humble and loving attitude. I need not remind you of Jesus’ story of the pharisee and the publican going to the synagogue to pray. Am a humble publican ready to admit my faults and failures or a proud and biased pharisee, boasting and feeling superior to others or despising them?

Allow me to quote a very loving and much-loved church leader:

In September 2013, soon after he was elected, Pope Francis was interviewed by Fr Antonio Spadaro SJ. “Who really are you?” Fr Spadaro asked, wanting to publish the answer... The Pope replied, “I do not know what the most fitting description might be... I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner.” He saw himself as a fellow sinner, not someone above the others. He lived in a simple room... On Maundy Thursday, he did not wash the feet of priests, but of migrants, prisoners and such non-VIPs…He allotted some buildings owned by the Vatican in Rome as shelters for the homeless. Evidently, he knew how Jesus lived, and what He wants from His followers. No wonder he was much loved by many—and disliked by churchmen used to luxury and privilege.” (Joe Mannath, It’s Him! p. 224)

Moral theologians—e.g., the brilliant and saintly Thomas Aquinas—would insist that the core of Christian morality is the law of love. And adults must follow a rational way of life. Are laws—whether secular or religious—needed? Yes, they are—as external helps for a good life, not as their centre.

Thus, a religious community or a school needs a time-table and allotment of responsibilities. A rule book is needed. But this is an external help, not the core. Just following the rules and the timetable will not make me a good educator or an inspiring priest or religious. People observe those above them — parents, teachers, superiors, political leaders, church authorities. Whoever lives a genuine, loving and inspiring life has the most impact.

So, laws and rules are needed in any organization, but we should not make them the centre or the criterion of our fidelity. The rich man who did not help Lazarus was sent to hell for lack of compassion, not for breaking some written rules.

We all started our life in a family. Our parents did not have a rule book to follow or to quote. Love is what makes life work; love is what parents shower on their children. Do they come under some laws and rules? Yes, they do. Thus, for instance, parents have legal obligations to each other and to their children. But the core of family life, as well as its best part, is not a set of laws, but deep and abiding mutual love.

The same goes for a religious community or parish or diocese. There are rules and regulations, of course. But what all of us look for is genuine love from those around us. A loving and caring bishop or religious superior has, no doubt, far more influence that someone who sticks to the rules, but does not show love. All of us are inspired by bishops, priests and religious who have donated their kidney to save the life of some poor patient. Or by others who lead a simple life, and share their time, money and talents with the destitute and the least gifted. This is the “law” of love that Jesus taught us. He did not write a rule book for us to follow; he showed us the essentials through example.

So, may our strongest and best rule book be the example of Christ and lives of saints. A good life is what we should follow, not any written rule book.

No religious order would exist if we waited for authorities to write rules first. Ignatius of Loyola or Francis Xavier or Don Bosco or Mother Teresa is not the product of some rule book. They did not start new ventures in the Church to obey some written rules, but to share God’s love with those who seemed to need it most. When St Francis Xavier, for instance, worked in India, the Jesuit Constitutions were not yet written. His “obedience” was to God’s invitation to go and preach the Gospel, not to a written rule book.

May our lives be centred on love, not on rules. We need rules and laws, but they are not the centre of our life, nor the criterion for judging goodness or morality. May we be centered on the life and example of Jesus and of his best followers (the saints). May those who live and work with us see something of Christ’s compassion and love in us. May our main “rule book” be His life and love.

This goes especially for superiors and formators: May our eyes and our insistence be mainly on growing into genuine and loving and Christ-like human beings — not on time-tables, rules and regulations.

Blurb

Moral theologians — e.g., the brilliant and saintly Thomas Aquinas — would insist that the core of Christian morality is the law of love….. Laws are needed as external helps for a good life, not as their centre.

Ignatius of Loyola or Francis Xavier or Don Bosco or Mother Teresa is not the product of some rule book. They did not start new ventures in the Church to obey some written rules, but to share God’s love with those who seemed to need it most.