Jesus, the Author speaks his wisdom to Moses revealing his love through the perfect law of liberty. This Law of Love protects us because “A community dominated by  disrespect for parents, workaholism, violence, envy, theft, and lies isn’t free” (Leithart, 5). The Law of Liberty frees us from the corruption contained within our hearts, perfecting it by following the Law of Love.

To bring law and order back into our world, God gave the  Shema, not a law necessarily of right and wrong but a law to order our relationships rightly.

“The LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Dt 6:4–5).

Listen, that is discern the many desires of your heart, so you may find true love. If one does not to listen to God first, one cannot love oneself. Worse, a person cannot love his neighbor who is God’s image. To protect our love from becoming selfish, God commands Moses to write a second Law, “You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own   people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18). Loving God first rightly orders our lives. Yet, Loving God adds nothing to his glory: Love naturally honors those who are above us. It adds everything to ours.

Instead of commanding us to love God alone, Jesus commands us to love our neighbor who is our equal, sometimes our enemy as another self. Loving our neighbor as ourselves not only respects our neighbor but solidifies our love for God because it not just a duty but a personal choice. Love is always a choice, a free act of the will: the Law of Liberty. When we love as God   directs, we have true freedom. When we fail to love as God directs, we corrupt our hearts.

To love one another, we do what is right for them. We give them their just due which honors God. He told us not just to love Him, but also to love our neighbor as ourselves.  This honors God but the heart of the command is not to love our neighbor for the sake of our neighbor’s well-being, but to love them out of our love for God. We love our neighbor through God’s love of us.

It is only right and just to love our neighbor. It fulfills the  command of the second part of the Law given by Moses. Yet, love goes beyond doing what is right and just. Love fulfills what is lacking in the other. This is mercy.

To give another what is their just due: honor and respect, is justice. Yet to give another what they themselves forfeited by their corrupt behavior goes beyond justice. It is mercy. Mercy makes up for what is lacking in the other. More profoundly, mercy not only makes us what is lacking in the other but knows that the other cannot repay what is given. It is a free gift of love to help the other, even when they do not deserve it, nor repair it and sometimes reject it. 

The Law of Love showing mercy develops deep, powerful relationships, not rules. When relationships break down, rules are needed. The more relationships break down, the more rules are needed to restore the relationship. Mercy, however, repairs and restores the relationship, realizing that the offending person could never repair nor restore the damage.

This is the mystery of Mercy: the Law of Pure Love. Corrupted hearts cannot heal themselves. Nor can they repair and restore what was lost. The injustice is too great, and the debt owed is inestimable. Yet, Divine Love pays the price to repair and restore the corruption within our hearts. Hearts healed by the inestimable mercy of Jesus, we who receive his mercy, now have love’s strength to love our neighbor, even our enemy, not with corrupt human love, but with the incorruptible love of Jesus. In this light, we love Law for Law is not a rule, nor command, but a person, Jesus Christ Who loved us out of his law, be merciful as I am merciful.

Most know petition prayers. We have a list of requests that we give to Jesus for Him to do for us. As did Mary, at the Wedding Feast of Cana, she petitioned Jesus to do something about the lack of wine; so too we ask Jesus to do something for us when we see a need.

Of course, we can petition Jesus as Bartimaeus did. Bartimaeus prayed fervently. He did not let the negativity and criticisms misdirect his focus. In fact, when rebuked by the crowd,  “He cried out all the more!”

As he cried out Jesus called him and asked: what do you want? Jesus asks everybody first: What do you want? Knowing we are His beloved sons or daughters, Jesus patiently awaits our petition because we need to know what we need before we can ask. He does this so we know exactly what we are asking for.

Many think Jesus does not answer our prayers, but He does. We have to be ready to receive what He offers. Sometimes Jesus will answer our prayers directly, other times indirectly. The difficulty is our ability to recognize the gift when we receive it.

Prayer, however, is more than petition. Notice Bartimaeus’ first prayer. It was not to cure his blindness, but acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of  David. In this prayer, he adored Jesus calling Him Rabboni, meaning My Lord and My Master.

Prayer begins with adoration. We adore Jesus as Lord because as Lord, He adores us. He delights when we see and receive his admiration for us. Yes, He wants to answer our petitions, but before He can heal us of our blindness, for we are all blind in some way, He wants us to recognize and adore his glory. Faith embraces his glory seeing his power to perfect us by his presence in our lives. Bartimaeus adored Jesus acknowledging Him as God before petitioning Him. So must we. Bartimaeus also saw Jesus as the high Priest Who offered sacrifices for his sins. Sin blinds us to God’s presence in our lives. The priest, as understood in the Old Testament, offered these sacrifices for his own and his people, as Hebrews reveals (Heb 5:1–2):

“Every high priest is taken from among men and made their  representative before God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring, for he himself is beset by weakness and so, for this reason, must make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people.”

Jesus, sinless, offers sacrifice for our sins. He offers Himself as the acceptable  sacrifice that takes away all sin. As High Priest, He offers Himself upon the cross removing our blindness so we can see the way we are to walk. Those who know they are blind cry out, acknowledging Jesus as the Divine Messiah and High Priest: Jesus, Son of God, have mercy (pity) on me a sinner.

Freed from our blindness, we thank Jesus as our High Priest Who takes away our sins and restores our lives. Thanksgiving is part of every prayer. Thanking  Jesus humbles us for we know that without Him answering, our plight would still plague us.

Restored, we walk by faith not by sight for our faith sees what our eyes cannot. Jesus is Lord, Who enlightens us with his presence. Truly present,  Jesus calls us to come, follow me. As Bartimaeus sprang up when Jesus called him, we too ought to spring up when He calls us. Springing up, we are ready when Jesus calls. We are bold and brave as Bartimaeus following the call.

Faith responds to the call of Christ, but discernment is necessary. How do we discern Christ’s calling? First, true discernment acknowledges Jesus as Our Lord and Master, our High Priest and King Who takes away sin and death. Adoring Jesus as Priest and King, fearlessly and faithfully, we follow Him so we may love Him. Following Him, we see Him as He truly is, God, and trust Him to answer all our prayers.

Next, does Christ’s call challenge us to be brave. Following Jesus breaks us from mediocrity. We have a bold resolve to do the impossible, knowing with God all things are possible. Facing impossibilities, trust builds and so does prayer. Our prayer becomes intense. As though we are wrestling with God as did Jacob, we persevere. Finally, our Christian call unabashedly commits to Christ. We are not ashamed of the name of Jesus, despite any persecution.

Bartimaeus is not just a blind beggar crying out to be fixed. This is what many Christians do. They want Jesus to fix their lives so they can go on their merry way. This is not Jesus’ mission. He is not a fixer. He is our Savior! His mission makes us his disciples who, after the encounter with Him, know we have seen the divine, transform our lives. Transformed, we evangelize and spread the Good News that Jesus healed us of our blindness and transformed us by the delight He bestows upon us. So He will do for you!

First called Christians in Antioch, we now define Christianity as a belief system, a set of doctrines and principles by which Christians live. Is this accurate? Looking at Christianity in the early Church, another vision appears. Jesus’s last words tell us to Christify the world.

      “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:18).

Christianity is much different than an institutional organization with a set of doctrines and dogmas which create another belief system to help people live a better life here on earth. As then and now, Christianity is not an institution with bureaucracy, administrators, and managers running a non-profit business; yet the church easily appears like this. In reality, Christianity walks with Jesus Who restores what was lost.

After the fall, humanity lost the tangible presence of God. The world empty and hallow, Divinity re-enters at the incarnation. Jesus restores the tangible manifestation of God, making Himself physically present once again. He walks, talks, eats, and even cries revealing he is real, not a phantasm or figment of our imagination. In Jesus, God is truly present, not only in his Word, but especially in the Eucharist.

We become what we read and eat. To read Scripture, we Christify our minds to think like God. To receive the Eucharist, we Christify our heart, becoming one in body with Jesus. Christianity, then, reveals divinity, Jesus, restoring the marital relationship God wants with humanity. In this union, the Bridegroom, Jesus, restores our fallen humanity to its dignity.

Through his incarnation, Jesus becomes one with us so we can become one with Him as husband and wife are one. So bonded, Christ sacrifices his life upon the cross as the bridegroom gives his life to his bride. This marital relationship God wants with his people runs throughout the Old Testament. But St. Paul captures this covenant when he writes to the Ephesians stating:

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the Church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph 5:25–27).

Baptism, those cleansing waters, makes us spotless, immaculate. Baptism invites us to drink of that chalice filled with Christ’s blood—his divine life—through which He fills us with divine life. Cleansed of sin and filled with divine life, we now partake fully in his life-giving love. To partake, Jesus invites us to let us “Confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help” (Heb 4:16).

The throne of grace is Golgotha. This place of terror becomes the place of hope. On Golgotha, Jesus tested in every way, “yet without sin” (Heb 4:15), restores our life by destroying death, the result of sin. His death, the chalice Jesus had to drink, heals our wounds. By his death, we are restored to life. By his infirmities, our iniquities are removed. Crushed, He resurrects.

To Christify us, Jesus tells us we need baptism, not just the baptism of water, but the baptism into death like his, so we may be “united with him in a resurrection like his” (Rom 6:5). To resurrect, Jesus tells us to drink the chalice, He has to drink. This chalice is not just a cup, but is the sacred vessel which the priests used to catch the blood of the lamb at Passover. Catching the blood, the priest brought the sacred chalice to the altar and poured out the blood as a remembrance of that first Passover through which the blood of the lamb saved the Israelites from the Angel of Death. In the New Passover the blood is not a lamb, but the Lamb of God Who pours out his blood constantly upon Calvary out of love for us. Christianity is the new exodus leading out of sin and death, depicted by Calvary, into a life full of grace.

Nothing draws us as Lady Wisdom. She is   charming, inviting, generous, and affirming. Full of beauty, she radiates glory. Her glory uncreated, is begotten of love. Her love reveals the secrets that trace out the deep mysteries of life. Like a mother, Lady Wisdom embraces us as her children. In that embrace, we know “she understands all things, and she will guide us wisely in our actions and guard us with her glory” (Ws 9:11).

Lady Wisdom, the tree of life, is more precious than gold and silver, more important than honors and praise (Wis 3:18). She is refined seven times and of her glory we all receive, if we are willing to discern and listen to her counsel. “Happy is the man who finds her” (Pro 2:13). She protects us from the snares that try to entrap us and from the stones set to make us stumble and die. Opposite of Lady Folly, She is life and if we obey her commandments, we will live (Prov 4:4).

On the other hand, Lady Folly seduces us. Sultry and bewitching, she offers sweetness and softness that comforts; yet she drains us of life. Seduced, she teaches us to hate discipline and despise reproof. As a wild child, she is carefree. She flies into the face of the storm creating them as she has no restraint except to indulge in every desire.

Lady Folly can never satisfy our hunger for happiness. She always leaves us wanting, even panting, seducing us with treasures, pleasures, and powers only to crave all the more. She sits seductively calling us to imbibe in her ways. Attractive, her ways please for they seem so delightful. Deceived we harden ourselves against Wisdom’s warning:

“For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.  Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol” (Prov 5:3-5).

Hoping she will fulfill our deepest desires, her folly only enslaves us deeper into the abyss. With her, we become fools: drunk on foolish delights.

Lady Wisdom, however, exposes her folly and foolishness. She counters earthly delights with heavenly insights. She declares,

For she (Lady Wisdom) is a breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty … She is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his   goodness (Wis 7:25-26).

Lady Wisdom has mindfulness with manners. She discloses values and inspires. In her, we see the wisdom of the wise and choose to be wise not only in earthly affairs but in eternal insights. More than being sensible,  practical, and careful, Lady Wisdom inspires so we will seek her to understand the great mysteries of life, knowing choices have eternal consequences.

St. Paul expresses this division between wisdom and folly so vividly  stating: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate (Rom 7:15). This tug to do right conflicts our minds. Our divine nature seeks transcendence but we rather satisfy our earthly desires with folly.

Lady Wisdom, however, cuts like the two-edge sword, freeing us from our follies. Powers, pleasures and treasures are anchors weighing us down, but Lady Wisdom cuts the chains. With Lady Wisdom, temptations become stepping stones. Empowered by Wisdom’s strength, we confront temptations putting them under our feet, knowing they cannot save. They cannot heal. They cannot create lasting happiness. They do, however, strengthen our trust in divine power to overcome any vice. Strengthened, we walk the narrow road that leads to happiness in which lies the beauty and glory of God’s goodness.

Jesus asks the question: Who do you say I am? In reverse, He asks us: Who are you? Ultimately, the way you think of yourself determines how you will think of Him. Do you see yourself as created in his image and likeness with God-given talents: intellect, energies, efforts, opportunities, and relationships. In other words, do you see Him in yourself?

      Character is everything. Christ comes to give us his character. To have a Christian identity in which we have clear boundaries: the Ten Commandments, to protect ourselves from self-destruction.

Our choices reveal our thoughts. They determines character which safe-guard our dignity. If we lack character, our choices, when temptations come, will succumb. Without character, our integrity wavers.  Weakened, we lose our dignity as a person created in the image and likeness of God.

We choose according to the way we think about ourselves. If we think highly of ourselves, we will not succumb to choices that weaken or even destroy our self-worth. We protect ourselves from destructive behaviors: addictions, angers, abuse, and affairs.

The malice of these behaviors should be obvious; yet today they are clouded and many are confused especially about marriage, and divorce, as affairs destroy the essence of marriage. Because divorce is now normative, we forget the commandment: do not commit adultery. It protects marriage and the individuals from degrading their dignity and marriage itself:

Sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul. It especially concerns affectivity, the capacity to love and to procreate, and in a more general way, the aptitude for forming bonds of communion with others.  (CCC # 2332)

Our character, when integrated, unites our passions and emotions with our reason and will. Integrated, a strong, vibrant character does not succumb to the affairs that dominate and plague many marriages today.

Men and women of character integrate their total self within their relationship. Sexuality does not define them, but it is integral. It is an essential part, but not the total part. In this light, the Catechism continues: Everyone, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. (CCC # 2333)

The physical, moral, and spiritual differences between men and woman are complementary. They orientate a couple towards the greatest gift, love. Love flourishing in family life creates harmony not only between themselves, but with their God. Their relationship emulates the relationships between the Father, Son and Spirit. Husbands give as the Father gives. The Son receives and returns the love as a wife does. The bond between the husband and wife is no different than the bond between the Father and Son.  Hence marriage is a sacrament, a sacred covenant, as is the Trinity.

Marriage reveals the Trinitarian relationship and reveals who we are. Sons and daughters of the Father. Through marriage, man and woman become one with each other as the Father, Son, and Spirit are one.

This oneness, divine friendship, comes at the price. Aquinas defines friendship as the greatest prize of healthy friendships because friends wish the best for the other, as Jesus wants our best: perfection.

Man and woman express friendship: an equality of dignity respecting their differences yet complementing and completing each other through unconditional love. Spouses willingly sacrifice everything for the good of the other. Marriage then, as Jesus defines, is of God: an irrevocable covenant between man and woman in which both are bonded together till death. 

Sadly, the Pharisees denied the permanence of marriage. They wanted divorce. To test Jesus , they asked if it is lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason. For Jesus, marriage binds two person in a covenantal friendship and categorically excludes divorce because it partakes in God’s Trinitarian Love. No one ever conceives of the Father divorcing the Son. Why do we conceive reasons to justify divorce (certain behaviors excluded).

   Man and woman unite with each other, and in that union they unite with God. This sacramental union: a mysterious exchange of body, mind, heart, and soul with another, is for the soul purpose to gift their total being to another unconditionally and sacrificially. This union besides completing and complementing the other: creating the fullness of character, creates life — human life, our greatest treasure. A child is born out of this love, and becomes the expression of God’s love for us at the incarnation.

Every conception recalls and renews the incarnation, the covenant when the Son united Himself to our humanity through a woman, Mary. Each birth then renews Christ’s birth. It is literally another Christmas. 

Each marriage also recalls and renews the first marriage in which Adam beheld Eve and bonded with her, declaring: you are bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.

Because marriage and children recall and renew the life and love God has within Himself  and the life and love that God has for us, they are sacred. Nothing should ever put them asunder.

Yet today, divorce, contraception, abortion, and child-trafficking and a host of other social ills attack the sacredness of marriage. To combat these evils, Jesus declares  marriage indissoluble and children as the most precious gift God can give to humanity: life creating love.