Your best friend's in hospital
and all you are told to do
is
"Cheer up!
It might never happen."
It grates
because you have a good reason
not to be happy.
You don't like
being told how to feel.
Your feelings are unique to you
and not to anyone else.
What does a person mean
when they tell you
to cheer up?
[PAUSE]
It's clear that
they mean well.
They don't want you
to be sad.
But the way it comes out
is that they don't want
you to be sad
because they find your sadness
uncomfortable.
The way it comes across
is that they don't want
you to be sad
for their sake.
That may be wrong
but it's what it feels like.
It gives you no comfort
to be told,
"don't be sad"
especially if then follows
a list of reasons
to make you feel better.
[PAUSE]
"Weep not" says the stranger
to the woman
who has lost her son.
When your world collapses around you
Is there no better time to weep?
Weep not?
What a terrible command!
And yet...
[PAUSE]
One thing that we don't appreciate
in the English language
is the difference
between the Latin word for command
and the Greek word for command.
The word "command" is from the Latin
in which a officer's orders
would be put into his hand
to read to his soldiers.
This could be anything.
Whatever is written
on the piece of paper
is to be done.
"Ours not to reason why,
ours but to do and die."
But the Greek command is different.
The Greek word for command
means that whatever is done
has a purpose,
a meaning,
a specific goal to achieve.
When Christ commands us
to weep not,
we can be sure,
utterly sure
that He means to remove
the cause of our sorrow.
When He commands us
not to be afraid,
we can be sure,
utterly sure,
that He intends
to remove whatever terrifies us.
Our Lord's commands
have a purpose.
They are not arbitrary,
or a show of His power over us,
or a source of amusement at
us being playthings.
He commands us
for our Good,
because He wills our Good.
He wills our perfection.
The will to perfection of another
is precisely what it means
to love.
This is why the Lord says,
"If ye love me,
keep my commandments."
This is not the command
of an inscrutable general
seeking to execute his own plans
seeing his men as means to his end.
This Jesus commands
in order that we be perfect.
Every miracle,
every sacrament,
every covenant,
every directive,
issued by Christ
has our perfection at heart.
This is why God
deserves worship,
because He loves us .
This is why He should be obeyed,
because He wants nothing less
than our healing,
our growth,
our strengthening
to be the people He loved to create.
[PAUSE]
If we tell someone
not to cry,
or not to worry,
or not to be afraid,
then we need to give them a reason.
If that reason is anything less than
our active love for them,
it's not worth it.
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