JN 5:33-36
You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth. Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But I have a testimony greater than John’s.
The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
The Moral Life
Sometimes I fall into seeing the moral life, following all of the commandments and rules, like that scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where Indy has to step on all of the right stones in the right order to “pass the test” or the floor would swallow him up. If I just tiptoe and follow all the rules exactly, then I’ll end up at the foot of the cross, totally pristine and looking like one of those calm images of a saint. If I’m honest, though, that’s never how I’ve found Jesus. Usually I’m looking down, have my hood up and am just trying to weather out the storms of life when BANG! I hit my head on something, look up, and there he is, hanging from a tree.
“I’m here, too. I did this alone so you wouldn’t have to. I want you to be happy, and I want you to be with me.”
The law is about intimacy; the moral life put forward by God is not a dry dictum, but is a blueprint for happiness from our creator. I’m happier when I love. I’m happier when I forgive. It isn’t always easy or comfortable, but it’s good.
—Conor LoPiccolo is a theology teacher at Strake Jesuit College Preparatory in Houston, Texas.
Prayer
Good and gracious God, you wrote your law on our hearts, not so that we would fear punishment, but that in honoring it, we might grow closer in our relationship with you. Help me to keep the spirit of the law given to us by Jesus, so that I may be a more just, forgiving, and holy person each day of my life. Amen.
—Jesuit Prayer team