Brotherly Love

Each year on the second Sunday of September, the Polish National Catholic Church pauses in the celebration of the Ordinary Time Sundays to celebrate the Solemnity of Brotherly Love.  In this liturgical year as we are following our way through the Gospel of Saint Luke, this Solemnity fits quite well with what is occurring during this present Ordinary Time.

For the many weeks of Ordinary Time in this third of the liturgical cycles we are following the journey of our Lord from Galilee to Jerusalem.  After His ministry of teaching and healing throughout the Galilee region is concluded, Jesus turns toward Jerusalem.  It is there that we know that He will offer His life upon the cross for the forgiveness of our sins and He will rise from the dead for the restoring of new life to the faithful.  During an extended period of time during this Ordinary Time journey, from the 13^th Sunday in Ordinary Time to the 31^st Sunday in Ordinary Time, we will be following along with this journey of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And we need to remind ourselves that we seek to follow Jesus not only in remembering this actual journey over 2000 years ago, but there is also a present journey that we must consider.  There is the present journey of our daily lives, and we must seek to answer the question, “Within my daily living, am I traveling with Jesus, or am I rather following my own ways apart from Jesus?”

To ask this same question in an entirely different way, what lessons are we presently learning to apply to our lives of discipleship within our journey of faith, as we seek to grow each day closer to Jesus.  We also must remind ourselves that during this journey of discipleship our Lord is constantly equipping us to be ever stronger disciples.  For the 19 weeks of this discipleship journey we must hold all of the lessons in tension.  We cannot just say that we have learned one week’s lesson and then its time to move on, each week builds upon the previous week to allow us, when we have completed the journey to be disciples who are ready to serve our Lord in the fulfillment of the two commandments of love. 

As the beginning of the Gospel reading for the Solemnity of Brotherly Love, in the Gospel of Saint Luke, Jesus tells us, “Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus.  ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’  He said to him, ‘What is written in the law?  What do you read there?’  He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.’  And He said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’” (Luke 10:25-28) Within our journey of seeking to follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ within our daily lives of discipleship, this Gospel lesson, which begins the Parable of the Good Samaritan can be seen as a guiding principle within the life of a disciple of Jesus.

The Solemnity of Brotherly Love was added to the liturgical calendar of the Polish National Catholic Church following the First Special Synod which was held in Scranton, PA in August of 1906.  At this Synod the two special Feasts (or Solemnities) were placed on the Church calendar, that of Brotherly Love on the Second Sunday of September and that of the Humble Shepherds on the Sunday after Christmas.

Brotherly Love was especially considered at a time when the members of the Polish National Catholic Church were severely persecuted and discriminated against for the organizing of the P.N.C.C.  This Synod proclaimed this Solemnity, less than 10 years after the organization of St. Stanislaus Parish, that even in the face of difficulty and persecution, we must respond, as followers of Jesus Christ, with brotherly love.

Bishop Hodur, following the Synod wrote in Trybuna concerning all that had taken place.  “Let us strive to preserve our soul in purity, free from the stains of sin, and when overcome by passion, or as a result of ignorance we digress from the true path and commit acts low and vile in the eyes of God and people, let us not praise them, let us not defend, let us not explain them away, let us not justify them before our own selves, before people, and before God, but let us be open and brave and let us break with sin, even if this should cost us our life.”

“Between us and God there should stand no crime separating us like a wall.  Between children and parents, between the members of a well-organized society, there is mutual understanding, there is harmony, there is love – thus between God and a person there should be a pure relationship based on truth and filial attachment.” (Trybuna 1907; English translation The P.N.C.C. Minutes of the First Eleven Synods 1904-1963)

The Gospel reading for the Solemnity of Brotherly Love concludes with the Parable of the Good Samaritan.  “But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’  Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.  Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.  So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.  But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.  He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them.  Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.  The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.”  Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’  He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’  Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’” (Luke 29-37)

My dear brothers and sisters, as we look at the present situation of our society, we can see the great need for brotherly love.  There is so much violence and hatred; our newspapers, television news and cell phones give us a daily litany of, not only violence, but also others seeking to justify or rationalize it.

Our Lord and Savior showed us the way and commanded us to follow it.  “Love God with everything you are and everything you have, and then love your neighbor as well.”  And even more so, show that love in how you treat others and respond to their needs.

We must hold on to the truth that has been shown to us through the Scriptures and through our relationship to Christ and His Church.  Through all of these things we have been shown the ways of discipleship.  We have sat at the feet of our Lord and heard the truth, which must be proclaimed in what we say and more importantly how we live.  But in encountering those who might disagree with us, like the Samaritan from the Parable, we must be willing to respond to another with love and care.  We are not called to compromise the truth, but in living the truth we are called to love.

So as Jesus told us, love God first and foremost, follow His ways and His truth in how we live our lives and in what we believe and what we do.  But then too, allow the presence of God in our lives to help us to treat others with love and respect.  As Jesus told us, “Go and do likewise.”