The law of love

It is all that is good, everything that is perfect, which is given us from above;
it comes down from the Father of all light (James 1:17)

Unsurprisingly, my mother has travelled to places that few antipodeans would dare venture – Libya, Jordan, the remote mountains of Turkey. Last year it was to Rarotonga.

My mother, obviously no spring chicken, is soon to travel to Canada for the long-awaited marriage of her well-beloved grandson, David. It has been a few years now since David and my mother made their way from the UK, across Western Europe, through the eastern bloc into Russia. They travelled together by road, stopping at caravan parks along the way. On that journey they were robbed near the Czech border, paid bribes in Russia and enjoyed each other’s company while discovering the treasures of Europe.

While younger members of the entourage travelling to Canada will do some heavy-duty post-wedding touring and traipsing across the border to New York, my mother keep closer to base. My nephew and his fiancée have bought a home, and now have a beautiful son.

There is too much gloom and doom in our newspapers. But it only takes a minute to double-check how rich our lives truly are.

As we return to Mark’s Gospel (Mark 7:1 – 23) this Sunday we are challenged by Jesus’ accusation against the scribes and Pharisees who were demanding to know why the disciples were not following the Jewish rules of washing before eating: You put aside the commandment of God to cling to human traditions. The point being, that when we put tradition before the commandment to love we are well off the mark. There are certainly some things that we do that have their origin in plain old-fashioned commonsense, but which over time have lost their significance.

The distinction between respecting those who pass down tradition (the elders, as Mark calls them) and the tradition itself must be differentiated. Rejection of a tradition, does not mean rejecting those who hold fast to them. We live in a world of constant and rapid change: the Gospel does not prevent us from accepting the multitude of challenges that await us, but we must not allow the diminishment of human respect.

My mother has stories I have yet to hear, explanations for the way we do things in our family that have yet to be expressed in words. She is loved for the person she is, for the gift she is to her family – which is why her presence in Canada is so necessary. We all have a family member who embodies what it means to be a member of our family, a grandparent, great grandparent. Treasure them, love them, respect them.