Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. St. Augustine, a few centuries after St. Paul, put it this way, “If you have true love you can do what you will.” If “all we need is love” why are there 1752 canon laws in the Church! The ultimate reason is that love is hard. Often we are not sure how to love even those we are close to. Sometimes love demands we are tender, other times tough. In all things, love requires that we are working for the spiritual development of those we love. So even though it is clear that love is our constant calling what that means in concrete situations it not always obvious. The laws provide some guidance but in the end we must make sure that by “loving others aw we love ourselves” we are helping everyone walk more and more in God’s peace and justice.
