(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: https://brothersinchristcmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Mass-Blog-for-the-Feast-of-the-Holy-Family-2023.mp3)

Families can be SO annoying. Mutual agitation seems so embedded in human DNA that even ancient sages like Sirach had to pull back on our leashes as we started snapping at something our old man or old lady might do—or say.

My son, take care of your father when he is old; grieve him not as long as he lives. Even if his mind fail, be considerate of him; revile him not all the days of his life; kindness to a father will not be forgotten. (Sir 3:2-6, 12-14)

In the history of humanity, only Jesus was free of that temptation to disrespect his parents. Or WAS he?

Sunday’s gospel reading about Jesus’ parents presenting their little baby before Simeon concludes with:

“The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.” (LK 2:22-40)

But the rest of this gospel account gives us an insight into that Holy Family’s growing pains. Simeon had just told Mary, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted —and you yourself a sword will pierce.”

This told her this little boy would have powerful enemies for the rest of his life, so, naturally, Mary’s radar would always be on. The next scene in Luke’s account of the Holy Family takes us to when Jesus was 12 and the three of them went to Jerusalem for Passover. On their way back home, Mary and Joseph discover their boy is missing. Returning to the scene of their Passover, they find their son schmoozing with the temple intelligentsia. Mary gently chastises him:

“Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”

His curt answer might have merited a smack from less enlightened parents:

“Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

But Luke simply states that while his parents didn’t understand this, Mary would always remember it. And so, evidently, did little Jesus. Luke tells us that after this, Jesus was obedient to them, and the boy “advanced [in] wisdom and age and favor before God and man.”

The wisdom a holy family learns from their tougher times together includes empathy and concern for each-others’ feelings. We would be wise to imagine that Jesus kept this incident in his heart too, and that it was instrumental in strengthening his empathic powers for later application in his public ministry—including via his teachings.

As Sunday’s second reading indicates (Col 3:12-21 or 3:12-17), Paul learned empathy the hard way—after his Master’s earthly ministry concluded and as Paul carried on with it. What did he learn about holy family behavior from the Son who, from childhood, was so concerned about prospering the work of his Father’s house?

Wives, be subordinate to your husbands, as is proper in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and avoid any bitterness toward them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, so they may not become discouraged.

Bitterness, disobedience and provocation were Paul’s specialties before Jesus offered him the shelter of his Father’s house. If there’s room in that space for someone as annoying as Paul could be, there’s hope for all of us who are willing to welcome wisdom into our own holy families.

–Tom Andel

(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: https://brothersinchristcmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Mass-Blog-for-the-Fourth-Sunday-of-Advent-2023.mp3)

People wise to the ways of the world-wide-web know what it means to dox someone. Doxing is posting private and damaging documentation about an enemy. So, a newbie 21^st Century student of language might surmise that doxology is the study of that vile act. But no. Sunday’s second reading is a doxology—a “liturgical formula of praise to God”—pasted to the end of Paul’s letter to the Romans:

To him who can strengthen you … to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be glory forever and ever. (Rom 16:25-27)

“Forever” is what both connotations of dox have in common. Online documents used as slander seem to have no expiration date. But, thank God, neither does the reign of the One whose earthly birth we’re ready to celebrate—the One who was born to save us from worldly cares that were birthed by the pride and vanity making us so vulnerable to mutual doxing.

In this Sunday’s gospel reading from Luke (Lk 1:26-38), that Savior’s mother exemplifies the attitude of service her holy family would live as an eternal legacy for all future families to model. The angel tells Mary, “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

How does she respond?

“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”

A handmaid is a lowly servant. Today that word would be a good way to dox someone in front of their colleagues, implying they’re unworthy of an important job entrusted to them. But Christmas teaches us to adopt a spirit of doxology: praise not only for God, but for the gift of adoption we all receive as brothers and sisters of the One whose birth we celebrate. This One’s heavenly Father bequeathed the following doxology to the earthly King (David) whose bloodline would flow to the only human ever worthy of that royal title (you know who):

“I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.” (2 Sm 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16)

In an era when spouting Biblical doxologies in public forums (outside of Christmas and Easter) is seen as a lowly occupation worthy of doxing, this non-Biblical dox is for you:

May this last day of Advent lead you to the first day of the rest of your eternal life.

–Tom Andel

(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: https://brothersinchristcmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Mass-Blog-for-the-Third-Sunday-of-Advent-2023.mp3)

“A man named John was sent from God. He came to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.” (JN 1:6-8)

The priests and Levites of his day took advantage of John the Baptist’s time on the witness stand. They third-degreed him, as the best prosecutor would do to a crime suspect. They were highly suspicious of John’s truth.

But we are all called to be suspicious of anyone claiming to be truth-bearers. Even John became suspicious of Jesus, so he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the One who is to come, or should we wait for someone else?” (Matthew 11:2-6)

Jesus responded by testifying to John about the healings he accomplished via his Father’s grace and his Spirit’s power. The power of this Trinity is vindicative—constantly showing God’s truth.

Isaiah was sent to usher-in an age of truth that would set souls free; “to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the LORD and a day of vindication by our God.” (IS 61:1-2)

But Isaiah was sent not only to tell the truth, but to plant the seeds of God’s justice in our hearts so that truth would feed centuries of human generations. Harvesting and sharing that truth is life-sustaining. Isaiah concludes:

“As the earth brings forth its plants, and a garden makes its growth spring up, so will the Lord GOD make justice and praise spring up before all the nations.” (IS 61:11)

As the centuries of drought between Isaiah’s and Jesus’ time proved (and the hunger between Jesus’ time and ours), crops left in the ground just die and are plowed under.

Paul teaches us to be wise farmers of God’s wisdom and to be just as tenacious in its vindication as John the Baptist was, even from the seclusion of his prison cell. Paul, after all, would do the same from prison cells of his own. From that perspective, Paul teaches us:

“Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophetic utterances. Test everything; retain what is good. Refrain from every kind of evil.” (1 THES 5:16-24)

As Christmas nears, we anticipate the rebirth of truth’s spirit in our hearts so we can nurture it and bear the light of vindication for others seeking freedom from an ultimate indictment.

–Tom Andel

(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: https://brothersinchristcmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Mass-Blog-for-the-Second-Sunday-of-Advent-2023.mp3)

The technologies of construction and destruction teach us about two kinds of strategic bombing. Constructive bombing uses explosives to move earth, rock, or other materials to prepare the ground not only for building, but for exploration and discovery. Destructive bombing depends on missiles or missile-equipped aircraft to clear the way for ground invasion and to destroy enemy morale for eventual surrender.

Both methods are intended to end one temporary way of life to make way for another one. But we are being called to prepare the way for the advent of life beyond time. Sunday’s readings dramatize the process. Isaiah used his prophecies to soften our hearts for that Godly invasion.

Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; the rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. (IS 40:1-5, 9-11)

Isaiah’s prophecy was intended to level us—put us all on the same plain so we can more easily hear God’s word and then spread it the way Isaiah did: by climbing over our ruins to reach higher ground. As he adds, that higher elevation provides the perfect platform and acoustics for such sharing:

Go up on to a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news! Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God!

Sharing God by word-of-mouth and act-of-hand may seem inefficient in this age of instant telecommunications, but its timelessness is more penetrating than the shallow bottom-scraping of our time-sensitive Internet bombardments. As the author of the Second Book of Peter reminds us—as an audience separated from him by centuries—“with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day.” (2 PT 3:8-14)

That’s how good strategists think—not by the minute, but by their soul’s lifetime. By that measure, readiness must always be NOW, and believers in that timeless spirit have the blessing of centuries of preparation for it—wrapped up in the writings of saints and prophets.

Those of us guided by our modern culture’s flavor-of-the-minute lifestyle management have sentenced themselves to life inside a moving target that’s easily dispatched by evil. God wants us to rethink our surrender to that fate so He can steal us away from the ruins of this world’s false and fragile gods. Only then can we rise to his plain and see beyond ourselves as John the Baptist does in Sunday’s gospel reading:

“One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (MK 1:1-8)

Once the remains of our indestructible righteousness are excavated from the ruins of this world’s false gods, we can more easily be assumed into God’s Holy Spirit—just in time to join in the advent of life beyond time.

–Tom Andel

(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: https://brothersinchristcmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Mass-Blog-for-the-First-Sunday-of-Advent-2023.mp3)

Many of us use an Advent-house calendar to prepare, day-by-day, for Christmas. Its 25 doors typically contain scripture readings or meditations to put us in the mind of God. But this First Sunday of Advent’s three readings can help us imagine a three-room Advent House to help put God back in our mind—for keeps.

Imagine the first reading from Isaiah depicting a windowless room representing our past Ignorance of God’s presence among us—or even ignorance of our need for that presence. The atmosphere Isaiah’s Old Testament text describes may seem familiar, as it feels as godless as our modern times. (IS 63:16B-17, 19B; 64:2-7)

There is none who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to cling to you; for you have hidden your face from us and have delivered us up to our guilt.

The second reading from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (1 COR 1:3-9) might be represented in our calendar much as the first of the three rooms in our Advent House is—windowless—but this time with a mirror in it. This second room, with Paul’s help, lets us imagine God in human form—looking amazingly like us, to help us anticipate God’s personal gift to us—custom-designed to our spiritual needs.

I give thanks to my God always on your account for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus, that in him you were enriched in every way, with all discourse and all knowledge, as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift.

The third room of our house represents the danger of a return to our Ignorance of God’s presence in our lives— and the resulting complacency that mirrors 21^st century godlessness. This room replaces the second room’s mirror with a window to the outside world, representing our opportunity to open it and escape this house and find God among our neighbors. This room comes equipped with God’s personal instructions for finding Him, and it requires we use the window as an exit only—soGod can catch us out in the world, interacting lovingly with humanity as Jesus did.  The instructions for such activity are detailed in the gospels (a portable version of which is also provided in this room). That means we have no excuse for inaction, as we did in the room Isaiah was struggling to open wide for us.

Just don’t expect another calendar beside this one. As Jesus tells us via the section of Mark’s gospel we open this Sunday,

You do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. (MK 13:33-37)

There’s no space for a bed in this room!

–Tom Andel

(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: https://brothersinchristcmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Mass-Blog-for-Solemnity-of-Our-Lord-Jesus-Christ-King-of-the-Universe-2023.mp3)

“Sleek” is a double-edged sword of a word. It can be used as a backhanded compliment to say “You’re slick” (as a used-car salesperson). Or, it could be used to denigrate the appearance you so carefully polished (maybe a little too shiny to be genuine). Both connotations have been applied to psychotic killers.

The Prophet Ezekiel uses “sleek” as a curse word in Sunday’s first reading (Ez 34:11-12, 15-17). This adjective describes a quality of our ultimate enemy, but sometimes we’re tempted to try it on for size. Awareness of the false sense of security it brings can help keep us in the protective arms of this enemy’s strongest opponent: the Good Shepherd tending to us lost sheep.

The lost I will seek out,
the strayed I will bring back,
the injured I will bind up,
the sick I will heal,
but the sleek and the strong I will destroy.

There are sleek sheep among us who fearfully maintain their protective façades by helping our enemy strip others of the security the Good Shepherd offers.

The 20^th and 21^st centuries offer extreme examples of how this sleek enemy thrives among the world’s most insecure prisoners, whether it be abortion’s allies who market death as freedom or Holocaust deniers who disguise racism as rationalism.

Many with short memories of humanity’s ugly alliances with our sleekest enemy hope we’ll overcome any discomfort the rest of us may have in making evil compromises. But the Holocaust came flooding back into our memories with a vengeance last month, when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel and started a war that threatens to unite an axis of evil against nations identifying as “free.” Some bad shepherds have threatened to execute anyone caught “collaborating” with the enemy they say should be ours too.

Let’s come back to this Sunday’s liturgy for some clarity on collaboration with “The Enemy”. The only collaboration that works to our advantage is done with our Creator. Christ alone has the right, as both Humanity’s Good Shepherd and as King of the Universe, to judge the quality of our collaborations.

Matthew’s gospel this Sunday (Mt 25:31-46) tells us God’s judgment will separate nations from one another, just as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. Who will be deemed our Judge’s collaborators in building a new world?

The ones who welcomed Him as a friend, fed Him when he was hungry and thirsty, and clothed and nursed Him to good health during hard times in the old one.

When our judge thanks them for those things, these collaborators will answer, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?
When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’

Our Judge will answer,

‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Those among us who trampled upon the least among us in this life to escape our sleekest enemy will be overtaken by it before reaching the next life—unless they repent. As St. Paul tells the Corinthians and us this Sunday (1 Cor 15:20-26, 28), that enemy will then be the last one exiled from God’s Universe.

That enemy is Death.

–Tom Andel

(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: https://brothersinchristcmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Mass-Blog-for-the-33rd-Sunday-in-Ordinary-time-2023.mp3)

We’re all born with gifts. How we use them testifies to our character. No need for boasting, as Mom always told us. That’s what we do when we feel our gifts are insufficient to make a good living.

No spiking the football!

That’s not a Biblical proverb, but it aptly describes how can-do wives and mothers behave—and what they advise their children. They don’t celebrate when accomplishing what their duties require (as immature football players do when they dance around the end zone upon making a touchdown). They live up to a job description dating back to the Old Testament:

Do work with loving hands.
Reach out to the poor and needy.
Be faithful to God and family.

The author of Proverbs 31, from which we take Sunday’s first reading (Prv 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31), tells us that “her works praise her at the city gates.”

Good wives and mothers are great examples to people entering the job market, too—and to anyone hiring them. Do your job faithfully and don’t pad your resume for the next one. Braggarts eventually get found out and get dismissed as posers. The Godly women in our lives can also teach hiring managers in all businesses what to look for when filling any role requiring character and courage—or at least how to develop those gifts within the people under their supervision. That vision is vital to successful companies.

Take the visionary employer in Sunday’s gospel reading (Mt 25:14-30) who structured the job to his employees’ abilities.

He entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one–to each according to his ability.

Only one of the three disappointed him—but not for not having the ability he saw in him. It was this cadet’s reluctance to apply his talent that made him a failure.

God created us as beings of light, with talents to help show each other the way to God’s heart. Like a good wife and mother does for her loved ones, good brothers and sisters watch out for each other. Paul, whose sins once blinded him, received the gift of vision on the road to Damascus. It overtook him like a thief, but through his letter to the Thessalonians (1 Thes 5:1-6), he tells us the Lord’s entry into our lives doesn’t have to be so dramatic. The road we travel has been well paved and lit by the pioneers of faith.

“You, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness, for that day to overtake you like a thief,” he writes. “For all of you are children of the light and children of the day.”

Children of faith are raised to live God’s job description for humanity. Living up to such great expectations is a celebration in itself. No need to spike the football before we even enter the end zone.

–Tom Andel

(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: https://brothersinchristcmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Mass-Blog-for-the-32nd-Sunday-in-Ordinary-time-2023-1.mp3)

This Sunday’s readings seem tailored to appeal to the selfish among and within us. We’d be wise not to read them that way. They seemingly dangle wisdom before our eyes as a jewel of great value, and like the slickest of salesmen, flatter our prudent self-regard, making us want to grab it before someone else does. The first reading from the Book of Wisdom reassures us:

Taking thought of wisdom is the perfection of prudence, and whoever for her sake keeps vigil shall quickly be free from care; because she makes her own rounds, seeking those worthy of her, and graciously appears to them in the ways, and meets them with all solicitude. (Wis 6:12-16)

This is not unlike Sunday’s New Testament selection (Mt 25:1-13) in which Jesus also seems to appeal to our selfish ability to recognize the importance of being ready for our own salvation. His parable of the coming of the bridegroom pits foolish against wise and challenges us to take sides in determining who deserves salvation:

At midnight, there was a cry, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise ones replied, ‘No, for there may not be enough for us and you. Go instead to the merchants and buy some for yourselves.’

We got ours, the wise ones seem to say.

But both these excerpts lack the one jewel of greatest value to God: compassion. Why couldn’t those wise virgins have warned the foolish well in advance to bring extra oil, as they did, so everyone could be ready? This is what compassionate leadership is all about, and is the gem that can be found elsewhere in the scriptures from which these readings are taken. We should always be ready to go beyond the excerpts to get the rest of the story. Take, for example, how that passage from the Book of Wisdom ends:

A multitude of the wise is the safety of the world, and a prudent king, the stability of the people; so take instruction from my words, to your profit. (Wis 6:24-25)

Safety for EVERYONE requires SOMEONE’s wisdom and compassion to make it happen. In Sunday’s excerpt from the fourth chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians (1 Thes 4:13-18), he promises salvation for both the living and the dead who’ve believed what Jesus taught. But look at the part of his letter we WON’T read this Sunday:

On the subject of mutual charity, you have no need for anyone to write you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. Indeed, you do this for all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Nevertheless we urge you, brothers, to progress even more. (1 Thes 4:9-10)

“Even more” is found between and beyond the lines of our Sunday excerpts, and invites daily scriptural scrutiny to find the gems of greatest value to us. Later in that same gospel section we read this Sunday, in which the wise virgins saved themselves by their prudent planning, Jesus describes the criteria God will use to judge the fruit of such wisdom:

Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me. Then the righteous will say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?’ … And the king will reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ (Mt 25:34-40)

We’d be wise to care about the welfare of the least among us. Those who strive to bring others along on their journey to God will discover upon arrival that God’s been with them the whole time.

–Tom Andel

(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: https://www.kofc3970.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Mass-Blog-for-the-31st-Sunday-in-Ordinary-time-2023.mp3)

It seems impossible for us modern humans to live up to the meanings of our given names. But think how hard that must have been for the gospel writers. Matthew means “Gift of God.” John: “Gracious God.” Luke: “Light Giving.” As for Mark, the bearer of that name was in real trouble because it meant “warlike” to the Romans and “soft and tender” to the Greeks—so it might as well mean “can’t please anybody.”  

But names are meant to be like oversized clothes: big enough for us to grow into. One online tool designed to help parents buy clothes for their rapidly growing children suggests “it’s always better for your child to wear clothes slightly too big for them rather than being too small. … To get the most bang for your buck, stretch the lifespan of their clothes by dressing them in outfits a size or two bigger than what they should normally have.”

Titles are like that too. Judging by biblical and modern history, both “Priest” and “Father” are difficult occupations for us mortals to grow into. Sunday’s readings support that. The first from Malachi (Mal 1:14b-2:2b, 8-10) addresses the priests descended from the tribe of Levi, responsible for the religious guidance of God’s people. It reads as both a calling and a warning about how they fulfill their grand commitment:

And now, O priests, this commandment is for you: If you do not listen, if you do not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name, says the LORD of hosts, I will send a curse upon you and of your blessing I will make a curse. You have turned aside from the way, and have caused many to falter by your instruction; you have made void the covenant of Levi.

With the modern-day scandals caused by misguided bearers of several faiths, including Catholics, that Old Testament verse seems strangely current. Our human frailties, exemplified among those in our hierarchies, have inspired inter-faith critiques of each other’s traditions. People have used Sunday’s gospel reading from Matthew (Mt 23:1-12) to call-out the Catholic Church for using the over-sized title “Father” for our priests, citing this admonition from Jesus:

“Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven. Do not be called ‘Master’; you have but one master, the Christ. The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

But we all have earthly fathers, and all of them are called to spend their lives growing in faith to fit that title perfectly. Jesus may not have wanted us to think ourselves equal to his Father, but he admonished us to try. With regard to that inter-faith sniping, we’d be well on our way to fitting the lofty title of Christian if we remembered what Jesus taught toward the beginning of Matthew’s gospel (Mt 5: 44-48):

“Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? … So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

We’ll probably never come close to fitting that title either, but we’re expected to try—and in trying, setting a fitting example for others. As Paul taught the Thessalonians in Sunday’s second reading (1 Thes 2:7b-9, 13), we are called to grow into an awesome job description:

“In receiving the word of God from hearing us, you received not a human word but, as it truly is, the word of God, which is now at work in you who believe.”

Belief, like perfection, is an Extra-Large garment, and fitting into it requires us to endure severe growing pains as we occasionally trip on it and fall during our journey through life. But we’re not walking alone. The Church is Christ’s bride, after all, and we should all do our part in lifting her train as we take that journey together to God’s altar.

–Tom Andel

(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: https://brothersinchristcmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Mass-Blog-for-the-30th-Sunday-in-Ordinary-time-2023.mp3)

Love is not just a feeling. It powers our very being. It motivates us to ensure someone else’s good. Love is God in action, and it’s as reactive as a nuclear explosion. Its absence is bad.

The Old Testament is filled with laws telling us how NOT to be bad.  Moses carted ten of them down a mountain for God’s children to follow. Ten of anything is a lot for our child-like mind to remember. Remembering back to our childhood, we know how well our parents’ “Thou shalt nots” worked—even if the feared “or else” was added.

The Old Testament scribes must have been of the same tough-love school of motivation, judging by how they interpreted God’s version of “or else”:

If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry. My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword. (Ex 22:20-26)

Jesus came to know intimately humanity’s limited capacity for selflessness, so he made Our Father’s diverse directions for sparking mutual reactions a lot simpler:

“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Mt 22:34-40)

Paul started his adult life as an old-school thou-shalt-notter. That ended when the Christianity he railed against planted the seed of compassion in his heart, took root and exploded into the love-by-example model Christ lived. Paul’s moral blindness was cured by the explosive light of God’s thou-shalls. His conversion became a contagion among idol worshippers like those Thessalonians who, like Paul, ended up seeing God in each other rather than in the false idols that continue to lure humanity away from God to this day. Those with the courage to reject pop culture’s contempt for the selfless love of the other have always been punished for it, even in ancient Thessalonica.

Brothers and sisters: you became imitators of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit, so that you became a model for all the believers … so that we have no need to say anything. (1 Thes 1:5c-10)

Such love is instinctive, even amidst affliction, and to this day, when we find strength to avoid the distracting gods of our culture, we free ourselves to model it and motivate others. Such otherly love is a powerful distraction from gods who only teach self-love—the kind that implodes and disappears. Love of others—unrestrained—explodes, spreads and inspires. We know the simple two-factor formula for it. God challenges us not to forget it.

–Tom Andel