In geometry, there is a basic set of simple facts or truths that are called postulates. (They are also known as axioms). This set of postulates or basic truths are independent of each other. They cannot be proven. They are just accepted as true. For example, two points determine a line. There is no logical way to prove it. It is just a simple, basic truth.
The power of geometry comes from this set of postulates. (I should also include its set of definitions too.) Any geometric situation or theorem that you may run into, can be logically deduced, or linked to, or proven from the set of postulates.†
As it turns out, Jesus gave us a set of postulates or basic truths to live by in His two commandments, love God first, and love your neighbor.
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40
If Jesus’ two commandments are like postulates, then the Ten Commandments are like theorems. Each and every one the them can be linked to either love God, or love your neighbor. In fact, everything in the Bible is based on these two commandments. (Like a math textbook, I leave it to the reader as an exercise to match up which of the Ten Commandments link to which one of the commandments by Jesus.)
But, Jesus’ two commandments are different than those of the postulates from geometry. The geometric postulates are independent from each other and stand on their own merit. Jesus’ two commandments depend on each other. The one cannot exist without the other. One cannot separate love of neighbor from love for God. Every time you serve someone, or make a real positive human connection, you show your love of neighbor; and thus you show your love for God. Love for God and love for neighbor build upon and into each other like a möbius strip.‡
a möbius strip
There is also one more important difference. The geometric postulates cannot prove everything.† Jesus’ two commandments work for everybody and every situation.
Want to know God’s will? Love Him and love your fellow humans. With everything that entails, it will guide you in the right decision every time.
It is interesting to experience the phenomenon of time compression around a traumatic event like a car accident. The adrenalin rush seems to help you remember every tiny little thing that happens within one second. It feels like the experiences of a lifetime are compressed into just a few seconds.
I hope I managed to capture this experience down in words in the short story “One Second”.
Read more about the accident in the previous journal entry “Forgiveness”.
For most of my life, I have followed the advice of not discussing religion or politics with anyone outside of my comfort zone. I have found that most people are entrenched in their views and beliefs, and are more interested in espousing their own ideas and opinions at the expense of others.
On a few rare occasions, I have found a person from a radically different point of view that I could honestly open a dialog. Although neither one of us budged from our positions, we none-the-less engaged in a meaningful discussion and learned something about the others point of view. The dialogs worked because both participants respected the other as a unique individual possessing human dignity and value.
Over the last couple weeks, I stumbled across two different weblogs. I ignored my own advice and felt compelled to enter into their discussions on religion. One was an atheist, the other a Christian. (I will only describe this Christian as one not of my denomination.) In both cases, I had nagging doubts about how well I described my position and point of view. And in the end, I found it most ironic that the atheist treated me as an equal and worthy of the discussion while the Christian did not.
I am not sure why I ignored my own advice. At some point in reading each weblog, I must have felt invited and welcomed into an honest and open discussion. I felt an urge to make a real human connection, to attempt to fulfill Christ’s second commandment “to love your neighbor.” I felt inspired by Matthew 5:46-47,
If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?
Now that the discussions are done (actually I exited the second one), I feel like I failed. I guess my skin is not as thick as I though it was. I know the Bible warns us that it won’t be easy. But I didn’t expect it from someone on the same Vine.
Last Monday, my wife Roberta, our 8-month old son, and I were in a car accident. It was the other driver’s fault. At about the last possible moment, the other driver had attempted to pull out in front of me from a side road and make a left turn across my lane. Her transmission slipped, leaving her stranded in my lane. All I could do was slam on the brakes and plow into her, luckily striking her car just behind the driver’s door. Everyone was okay, except for a nice-size cut on my left hand and airbag burns up my left arm. Roberta had an airbag burn on her right wrist. The severity of the accident ranks somewhere between minor and major. Both cars had to be towed. No ambulance. Our car ended up being classified by the insurance company as “totaled”. And of course, the insurance money won’t be enough to replace it. I plan to post more about the accident later.
At the scene of the accident, my wife and I were calm and patient. No displays of anger. The other driver was very civil too, and seemed overly apologetic. Roberta and I just had this deep sense of disappointment that the accident happened, and were especially thankful that no one was seriously hurt. It could have been much worse. Over the next couple of days, our frustration mounted as we dealt with insurance companies and such. Nothing much is settled yet, but thoughts of lawyers and lawsuits pop in my head every now and then.
I was reminded at last night’s Mass that it has taken nearly a week for me to realize that I needed to forgive the other driver. During Father Ken’s homily, he reminded us that we are a divided people. We are a divided people on many levels: neighbor with neighbor, nation with nation, church with church, and so on. And when we partake of the Eucharist, we are joining with the body of Christ. I was reminded of Christ as the Vine, and we are the branches. How can we join with the Body and be part of the Whole if we are quibbling with our neighbor? It is one branch of the same Vine fighting with another. I knew what I had to do then.
Ten days ago, I was involved in a discussion with an atheist on another weblog. I was about to post the question below before I lost electricity and my computer troubles began.
How do you love your neighbor? Or better yet, how do you love your enemy? By love, I mean you forgive any transgressions, and honestly hope well for the other person. I suppose the best an atheist can do is tolerate them, or maybe ignore them. But that’s not love, and more importantly, that’s not forgiveness. If you love your enemy, and this seems only possible through God, you will not want to do any violence or malice against them. I imagine an atheist can only resist violence based on his or her morals and ethics.
I pray for Jennifer, the other driver. I forgive her. I let go of all my frustrations and disappointments. It is in God’s hands anyhow. I am glad that she is not hurt. I wish her more success with the insurance company than us. I pray for forgiveness from Christ that it took me so long to realize that I needed to forgive Jennifer. Thank you for reminding me to put others before me. And I pray that Jennifer lives a long, happy, prosperous life in the light and love of Christ.
The proverbial caca hit the computer fan about ten days ago. The first thing to go was the home computer. After attempting to reboot after two power interruptions, the dang thing just seemed to hang on the last step in the startup procedure with this cursed spinning beach ball. At least Mac’s don’t have the PC’s “blue screen of death”.
After an attempt to use Disk First Aid from the system CD and some other tricks, I concluded that something was messed up within the directory of the hard drive. I needed Norton Utilities or Tech Tools Pro. Unfortunately, the local CompUSA did not have either in stock. Actually, they had Norton, but I needed the soon-to-be-released version 8.0 for Mac OS X. Unfortunately, that meant a significant delay. (For my family, a delay of one day is bad enough, but a week or longer! Is that a sign of our impatience in today’s modern society?) Fortunately, Norton 8.0 was released last Wednesday. I paid extra for FedEx and it arrived on Friday. It took three attempts using the Disk Doctor, but it is up and running now. I have backed everything up for the day when the hard drive decides to mess in its pants again.
A couple of days after the home computer fiasco, my daughter noticed on a computer at my wife’s work that cowpi.com was down and offline. It was not down for an hour, or a day, but a whole, bloomin’ week! I eventually discovered that it was not my web host, but rather the domain name service. They had put my domain name on hold! Why, I don’t know. I still had one month before it was due for renewal. After settling that problem, it took another 24 hours for my domain name to propagate around the world and appear on everyone’s DNS servers.
Well, after computer limbo for 10 or so days, everything is back up and running. I just wonder how many emails I lost when the domain name was down?
