Jordan Paul

And by Love, in this context, most of us mean kindness—the desire to see others than the self happy; not happy in this way or in that, but just happy. What would really satisfy us would be a God who said of anything we happened to like doing, ‘What does it matter so long as they are contented?’ We want, in fact, not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven—a senile benevolence who, as they say, ‘liked to see young people enjoying themselves’ and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, ‘a good time was had by all’. —C.S. Lewis

Friends,

Today the Church celebrates the feast of St. Nicholas. He’s famous for a lot of reasons, although my personal favorite (and that of many others) is the story of him slapping Arius at the First Council of Nicea for spouting heresy.

St. Nicholas was a staunch supporter of the doctrine of the Trinity and Arius was not. The fact that today is St. Nicholas’ feast day and not Arius’ should tell you who won the debate.

To be clear, it’s not my favorite because I think that slapping your theological foes is aspirational but because it reminds me of the Church’s ability to boldly stand for something. In today’s reading from the First Letter of St. John, we read one of those parts of the Bible that fuels so much debate today over the role of the Church: “God is love.”

Is it the Church’s role to provide a theological basis for beliefs we already hold to avoid any cognitive dissonance? To purely condemn the shortfalls that we all have? On both accounts, I would say no.

In the same way that our love for others looks different, God’s does too. Just as God’s love might empower a grievous sinner to turn from their ways because they rightfully fear God’s anger, God’s love might still too empower monastics to carry out St. Paul’s exhortation to pray without ceasing.

The Church must echo this—it does not turn sinners away (who would be left?), yet it also cannot simply empower them to live their lives as they always have. Mercy and love undergirds all that we do but it is all for naught if we lack the will to also be formed by that same love.

In Christ,

—Jordan