This single sentence sums up what I have almost always believed. I also believe that people are basically good so the story about Cain and Able (Genesis 4:8-12) has been difficult for me to understand. It wasn’t until I read Lawrence Boadt’s explanation in our text, titled Reading the Old Testament, An Introduction, that I understood the biblical writers purpose was to give “a dramatic example of how the alienation and sin of the garden [had] spread to new levels of evil” (122). The value of a story about killing my brother might still be confusing, except Broadt goes on to explain that it was, “Israel’s belief that human sin leads not only to God’s punishment but also to his compassionate mercy” (122).
A long time later in a story found in The Gospel of Mark, a scribe asks Jesus, “Which is the first of all the commandments”? Jesus began by saying, “Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is Lord alone” (12:29). He went on to emphasize the importance of love in our relationship with God and the importance of love in our relationships with each other. He concluded with, “There is no other commandment greater than these” (12:31), and after the scribe answered with understanding Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (12:34).
Until recently and despite my early training, I believed that everyone was tied together in a struggle to understand our collective survival. Vaclav Havel, in his address to the US Congress in 1990 put it this way, “Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness, nothing will change for the better in the sphere of our Being as humans, and the catastrophe toward which this world is headed … will be unavoidable.” What I didn’t understand as a child, or had failed to learn until now, is that it’s not about survival. The reason life is difficult for so many people, when almost everyone can quote the commandment “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”, is that the Kingdom of God is not something to wait for as individuals, as I had been taught. The Kingdom of God is something we should be building now, in community.
In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we find the words, “None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. … In this solidarity with all men, living or dead, which is founded on the communion of saints, the least of our acts done in charity redounds to the profit of all” and concludes with the important observation that, “Every sin harms this communion” (953). It also says, “Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God” (1822).
Ultimately, this is one of the reasons why I was attracted to the Catholic Church, and why I am Catholic today. I believe that we are all here to help each other, not simply to survive but to raise each other up. I was involved in the RCIA program for a short period after my Confirmation, and I still feel drawn to and hope to be involved in the program again. I believe that the Catholic Church is teaching the Truth, and I want to help others by being an example of His love. I now understand why it doesn’t seem possible to solve all of the daily struggles in life, because now I realize it’s about the struggle. God hasn’t tasked us with solving all of the problems in the world; He is simply asking us to do what we can.
In the end it’s not about a solution, it’s about our response to the need.
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Instructor's Evaluation Follows:
This paper was submitted, and was returned (in a timely manner) with comments and suggestions for improvement. Fortunately it was early enough to submit a corrected and improved version of the paper, incorporating the instructor’s thoughts. His comments are worth passing on, and although I’ve edited the various comments here is what I learned:
1) I failed to include sufficient citations, and those were added to the final version of the paper.
2) Originally I included the text of the first commandment, which he noted is “well known and could be summarized in one sentence”. I had also used the King James Version for this quote which I’ll agree, “is a dated translation”. He suggested that it would be, “better to use the NAB or NRSV. I’ll admit that I was a little worried about using the KJV, but I still love reading the King James English, and hoped that my instructor would understand.
3) While commenting on why I felt that, “Life is so difficult for so many people” I made the point that, “The Kingdom of God is something we should be building now, in community”. My instructor felt that, “this is a wonderful insight and worth a lifetime of prayer, reflection, and action!
