"The law of Thy love"

I was in Hong Kong (yes, again) this Thursday and was fortunate enough to make it to the 5:30 PM Mass at the Catholic resource center on Connaught Road (15-18). It was a great Mass. The priest was very reverent, not in a rush, but also not overly pious, manifesting a winsome and articulate style of preaching. He spoke on prayer. "If someone asked you to say a prayer on the spot," he said, "what would you say?" He noted the example the missal provides. Citing what I believe was that day's opening prayer, he unpacked a few potent phrases:

Father in heaven,
guide us according to Thy law of love.
Help us to love one another,
and bring us to perfection
in the eternal life,
which You have promised to us.
Amen.

That first plea -- guide us according to Thy law of love -- struck a chord with me. The week before I'd been reading the CIC on religious life. On a whim, I flipped to the end of the book to see how many canons there are total in the new CIC: a mere 1,752. The book begins abruptly, with canon 1 stating baldly, "The Canons of this Code affect only the Latin Church (Canones huius Codicis unam Ecclesiam latinam respiciunt)." No dander about the "theology of law", just a key qualification of the Code's scope.

The CIC ends nearly as abruptly, discussing as it does in its final canons the all-too-exciting topic of transferring pastors. But then, at the last minute, it gilds the whole structure of law with the Gospel by saying, and rather matter of factly, "[T]he salvation of souls, which must always be the supreme law in the Church, is to be kept before one’s eyes (et prae oculis habita salute animarum, quae in Ecclesia suprema semper lex esse debet)". I can't help but think Pope John Paul II, who oversaw the 1983 CIC, had a personal hand in that last canon.

That is the true theology of law. That is, moreover, the vision of the blog. Law serves love and love secures law. Lex serva amor et amor securat amor (??). (Please notice the Scriptures recently posted atop the sidebar to that effect.)