|
|
|
2nd in Luke Ocala October 3, 2004 "As you would have others do to you, do also to them likewise" (Luke 6:31) Today's short excerpt from St. Luke's Gospel is laden with rules, or better yet, I may say prescriptions for complete happiness and fulfillment. I would highly recommend to all of you, when you get home, to open up your Bibles to the 6th Chapter of Luke, and concentrate on verses 31-36.. This Chapter commences with verse 31, as I just quoted, and which is recognized as the Golden Rule. The Rule, which gives the formula to people and nations for automatic happiness; but unfortunately this rule is completely ignored, ---- and as a result, we reap the harvest of personal and world unrest, because of this ignoring. The Golden Rule, is the precise scale and measure of true social justice. It is simple and complete in only one phrase. But, man has chosen to make his own rules, and as a result, we have thousands upon thousands of laws in our legal and judicial system, to which we daily add new ones. The more laws we add, the more we witness no actual improvement in the relationship of person to person. It is an established fact, that the further we move from God's simple law, the more laws will continue to be written, and the further away we shall be drifting from the happiness and fulfillment, that a law should bring. It is amazing that the Idolater Roman Emperor Septimius Severus in the 3rd Century was so inspired, when he came across the Golden Rule, as taught by the Lord, that he commanded this Rule to be inscribed on all the entrances and walls of his Administration Buildings. He probably perceived it as it truly is: --- the Alpha and Omega of personal and social harmony. All this from a pagan Emperor. And here we are, a Nation founded on Christian principles, but so readily submitting to the vocal minority. Prayers were tossed out of Schools and the 10 Commandments, which adorned our public buildings for decades, are removed to satisfy the great minority of atheists. The Golden Rule is so complete in its one sentence declaration. It is a Law of order, as well as a Law of Justice. No less, it is a Law of Love, Agape! Firstly, the Golden Rule is the simple Law for order; --- yet, it is not practiced, even in the least. --Thus, we cannot focus on this simple, yet profound sentence, spoken from God. We chose in its place, to pass countless thousands of laws, to maintain order in our society. What is the result? Simply, life is mutilated, honor is made a mockery, our possessions come into question, and the envisioned order is something left to be strongly desired! Experience proves, that the laws of humans are weak, and even atrophic. They suffer from atrophy, because they are based strictly on the human aspect, without any relevance to the Divine and lasting! True order, can never be established, unless it is founded on the Golden Rule. Secondly, we said that the Golden Rule is a Law of Justice! If given a chance, it would surely remedy the ills of society. It would refine the relationship of Employer to Employee, and visa versa! It would alert the Employer to be conscious of the situation, asking himself or herself, what he or she would expect, if he or she were an Employee? Also, it would alert the Employee, what he or she would expect from the Employer if he or she were the Employer? The Lord said that "a worker is worth his wages (Matt: 10:10) As for the Employer, it would be well to bring to mind the example of the Lord and Master of the Universe, Who humbled Himself, to become the Sacrificial Lamb for all the world, and to remember, what He had stated: that He came to serve, and not to be served! But, what is the situation around us? To put it plainly, it is one of sheer greed! Companies, one after the other have relocated their manufacturing plants in third world countries, taking advantage of slave labor, and marketing their products in our Country on an equal level price with goods manufactured here, with wages paid according to American standards. Does this not constitute raw greed? How else can it be justified? Then we hear our Leaders laud and champion "human rights." Human rights cannot be simply a prerogative for American Citizens only! The disadvantaged people of the third world, are equally God's children; they are created like us; they have the same feelings and emotions as us. Is it not then a sin to basically take advantage of them, simply because they are in need? Would this situation, as well as many other similar situations exist, if the Golden Rule were in place? Man's inhumanity to man is the culprit; and it will continue to be responsible for all tragedies, on the personal, as well the national and international level, as long as man chooses to keep the Golden Rule buried under his greed, his egotism and his intolerance. We mentioned that the Golden Rule is the measure for the Law of Order and the Law of Justice. But, over and above, it is the Law of Love, Agape! It is the New Commandment, that our Lord gave to "love one another." He pushed to the limits for this love, to what may be considered on the surface, as the extreme, by saying: "Love your enemies!" But, the Lord did not only preach it; He firstly gave the example by forgiving His crucifiers. Just three years after the Lord's ascension into Heaven, the first martyr of Christendom St. Stephen, became the Lord's imitator, by forgiving those, who were stoning him to death! St. Paul in the entire 13th Chapter of 1st Corinthians impresses the need and the benefit of Christian love. In part, I now quote to you from this Chapter: "Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable and resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails." Can we not but agree with these beautiful and soul-saving words of St. Paul? Most assuredly, we do. But, the question is: "do we strive to give them substance in our everyday living?" I am reminded of one of Aesop's Fables, where he describes a chicken scratching the earth to find a worm for food, It came across a lustrous little object, which it picked up and could not chew, so it cast it off. A passerby, dazzled by the sparkle, picked up that little cast-off object, only to discover that it was a very precious diamond! How often in our life's experiences we resemble precisely the act of that chicken! We make laws, we organize, and belong to societies, we make pacts, we sign contracts, oftentimes in vain; because, these are not founded on the law of order, of justice, and of love. Why then, do we suffer? Because, like Aesop's chicken, we so lightly toss away the diamond. Our society must come to believe, that we do not need the many laws that we have. We have to re-discover the greatest diamond of the world, which is the Golden Rule, given to us by the Lord. Precisely, this is the Golden and Eternal foundation for a healthy society. In closing my few remarks, I would pose the question: "Will people and nations ever make an honest effort, to bend down and pick up that cast away diamond, which is none other than the Golden Rule? If not, we can almost be assured, that our fate will continue to grow even more dismal than it is. God forbid!
|
|
Back to home page
Send mail to
epantaz@yahoo.com with
questions or comments about this web site.
|