Homily 23rd Sunday Year A
“Owe no one anything, except to love one another”
That is a curious line in Scripture; what on earth does it mean? There are two parts, that read separately make sense. “Owe no one anything” and “love one another” Firstly, to place it in context it follows St. Paul’s exhortation in his letter to the Romans, to be entirely compliant with the powers of the then Roman Empire, to pay respect to those in power and to pay all taxes and dues. That seems to be entirely practical advice to the early Church, both to avoid its members, individually getting into trouble, or giving a reason for the civil authorities to regard the Church as a group of troublemakers.
So, the first part of todays reading to “owe no one anything” just seems like a continuation of that very sound, practical advice of the preceding lines in the letter. Because we describe, in human terms, owing anyone anything; a debt: something that has to be paid back. Usually, the debt must be returned in a fixed term, whether the repayment of a loan, or a mortgage. It involves not only paying all of the money back, to cancel the debt, but also almost invariably it involves, the payment of an additional amount, that in the nicest of human terms we call, ‘interest’ that is added to the debt.
Invariably a debt also involves the notion of penalties, perhaps fair enough; if you do not make your mortgage repayments, the building society or bank will repossess the house in which you live. Alternatively, you may choose to deal with other lenders who will, assure you of help to ‘consolidate’ your debts and also will probably fail to assure you that their help involves a lifetime of debt, on an even greater scale of interest, and not to mention, penalties that might, at worst involve an unseasonal swim or a shallow grave. Clearly, it is best to owe no one anything.
“Owe no one anything, except to love one another”
In this phrase Paul has suddenly moved on to “love” of neighbour. And, that in obeying the Commandments, that tell us the things that we should not do; killing, theft, covetousness, adultery; can all be summed up in the process of us ‘loving our neighbour’. Surely loving our neighbour as ourselves has got to mean more than just not murdering them, much as we sometimes might feel tempted, so to do. I recall a monk stating that he thought it a remarkable thing, that in all the years of the community at Ampleforth; that there had been no murders.
Part of the problem is in understanding what Paul means by the word that has been translated as love. The English language has so many alternative words to name or describe what would seem identical, or very similar things. That is not surprising, as our language has incorporated so many other tongues and imported so many words of similar meaning.
It seems paradoxical that the ancient Greek, in which the New Testament was written, had eight words for what were regarded as different forms of love; English has to make do with only one. So, it is perhaps not surprising that in English the word love is often thrown around in ways that seem trivial, for example love as a way to emphasise ‘liking’ something: I would love to go there, or I love that flavour.
St. Paul of course has expressed exactly what he means in a way that transcends particular languages. Owing someone does imply a debt, an obligation to repay. However, assuming that you have paid off your debts, with interest, even at the exorbitant rate of loan sharks, a debt repaid is cancelled. In the usual sense of the word, something once repaid, is no longer owed.
“Owe no one anything except to love one another”
There is still that word: “except”. It tells us that loving one another cannot be avoided. And in doing so, it is incurring a debt and an obligation, that is not just a fixed-term demand, that can ever be repaid and forgotten about. It is an imperative that must be carried out at all times. It also sometimes comes with an extortionate rate of interest, payable by the lender; not the borrower. That is hard.
For that is Godly love. It is what we have all received and continue to receive from God, and it is what we must perceive and seek to replicate in our own lives and in all our dealings with others.