Created in the image of God, we are all made for love, whatever our state in life or the circumstances in which we find ourselves, writes Christian Brother Julian McDonald. While love always trumps legalism, law of whatever kind, from codes of conduct to road rules and civil statutes, are standards of behaviour to guide us in living with dignity and in respecting the rights and dignity of everyone we encounter. The “law of love” is the foundation on which all other law is built.

The essence of being an authentic disciple of Jesus is to live and act in the awareness that discipleship involves service and that everyone in need whom we encounter has a claim on us and deserves to be treated with sensitivity, care and compassion, for no other reason than that they are as dear to God as we are, that they, too, have God’s Spirit dwelling within them and that they are our sisters and brothers, writes Christian Brother Julian McDonald.

We are invited to engage reflectively with both aspects of today’s gospel-reading, writes Christian Brother Julian McDonald. Do we accept that we are being invited to discover and encounter God in the service of others? Are there questions about our journey to mature adult faith, a journey of a lifetime, that we are hesitant to ask because we fear that the answers to them might disturb our comfort and prod us into further exploration, which could lead us into doubt and deeper questioning?

If we are courageous enough to engage with today’s gospel-reading as participants rather than as side-line observers, we, too, will have to answer the very question that Jesus put to his disciples: “And you, who do you say I am?” And if other people want to find out who we really are, all they have to do is to carefully observe what we do and say in the course of a couple of weeks to see if our actions match what we say and are in harmony with the standards we claim to uphold, reflects Christian Brother Julian McDonald.

An implication of this Sunday’s gospel-reading is that it raises for me questions of my own deafness to the action and invitation of God’s Spirit calling to me from the people in the world around me and indeed from those with whom I live and work, writes Christian Brother Julian McDonald. How am I being prompted by God’s Spirit to open my ears, mind and heart to the cries of the forgotten, the displaced, the alienated, the refugees struggling in my small part of the world?