Homily, Thirty-first Sunday of Ordinary time, Cycle B – November 3, 2012 - Love of God and Neighbor

The readings are from the Thirty-first Sunday of Ordinary time, Cycle B

If someone were to ask you of a person in modern times whom exemplified,  “Love your neighbor as yourself”, whom would you think of?    The first person that comes to mind in my lifetime is Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta.   When I think of her I see diminutive elderly nun slightly hunched over wearing a white habit and blue stripe kneeling down, looking into the eyes of and lovingly embracing a dying poor street person. This morning I asked Father Anto about Mother Teresa, and he confirmed this image. He told me a story about a dying man who she just met and was going spend a large sum of money to care for his needs.  Many people questioned her about why she was doing this. As she was caring for him in his last moments the man said to her, “I now know the love of God”, and then died.  She loved her neighbor.

I found a video of Mother Teresa called “How to Love God”.   I thought this would be some good insight from someone who lived a life of “Love your neighbor”.  In watching she asked the question, that she attributed to St. John – How can you love a God who you can’t see, if you don’t love your neighbor who you can see?  This is a very challenging question.

In today’s Gospel we hear the scribe ask Jesus what is the greatest commandment.   Why would the scribe ask this?  He was a scholar of the Jewish law?  Didn’t he know all the laws?  He may have, but there were many, with a total of 613 at the time.   There was much debate on these laws as what were considered the most important.         

Jesus first answers with the Israel confession of faith, “Hear O Israel, The Lord is our God and you should love Him alone.”   He also tells him how to love God, which was with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength.    The heart is the inner depth of a person and where all decisions & actions flow.  The soul is the whole self of a living being and source of vitality.  Even the thoughts and reasoning of our mind should be animated by the love of God. Finally our strength, which is every ounce of our energy, should be dedicated to the love of God.  This is our whole being.  

This statement was well known to the Jews at the time, but Jesus said something unique adding “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”.   The two together form the foundation of the Ten Commandments, with the first three as love for God and the remaining seven as love for neighbor.  If we are to love God and we are made in the image and likeness of God this all makes perfect sense, but in reality this is really hard to do!

Have you ever had an “ah ha” moment, where everything all seemed to come together at once?  I think this is what happened to the scribe, when he said that love of God and neighbor was worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.   He was wrapped up in the 613 precepts of the law and all the offerings and sacrifices in the temple.    He finally realized that loved trumped all of this! Jesus acknowledges that he was on the right track, but he still had a way to go.  He understood, but now he had to do, living the love.

The love of God alone was something the Israelites were familiar with from Isaiah in His covenant relationship with the people of Israel, and Jesus extended this covenant to all people.  In this covenant God promises if we love him, we will have a long life, grow, and prosper, and be given a land flowing with milk and honey.  This is a beautiful image for eternal life with God in heaven.  How do we keep our covenant with God loving him with all our heart, soul, and strength?  By loving our neighbor.

This coming week we have an opportunity to show love for our neighbor by showing our commitment to God and voting for candidates who support Catholic moral and social teachings.  Who are our neighbors that we should be concerned about? The unborn child, the poor family, the elderly person, the immigrant living among us, and the victims of war.  We are called to give special attention to those who are marginalized is any way. 

         The important Catholic social and moral issues we need to form our conscience are addressed in a special section on page 5 of the Archdiocese weekly newspaper, the Criterion, which summarizes the Bishops document on Faithful Citizenship.  I would encourage you to read this as it takes only about 10 minutes. By voting, we can defend human life and marriage, protect our religious liberty, and care for the needs of the most vulnerable members of our society. They need us to speak on their behalf.   There are some moral issues that carry more weight and we as Catholics are obligated to oppose, especially those involving intrinsic evils such as abortion, cloning, destroying embryos for research, and euthanasia.  There are others that may require action to pursue justice and promote the common good.  We also need to pray and use good judgment based on these teachings in selecting whom to vote for.  After the elections we need to continue to show love for God and neighbor by staying involved to shape the political culture to one that supports Catholic moral and social doctrines by running for office & serving, working in political parties, and communicating concerns to elected officials. 

         We of course also need to commit ourselves through our love for neighbor and we have plenty of opportunities in our parish and diocese.  We have the upcoming Thanksgiving for drive and volunteer opportunities in our Food Pantry and at the Catholic Charities Christmas store.   We also need to be sensitive to those we live and work with each day.  Many times they have need for love that go unnoticed.

         Blessed Mother Teresa offers some words of how we are to love God, by loving our neighbor.  We can feed the hungry, not only with bread, but feeding those hungry for love through the Word of God, and tender concern.  We can clothe the naked, not only with a piece of cloth, but restoring the nakedness from loss of dignity, the beautiful human dignity of the child of God, created to love and be loved, with a virtue of purity. We can shelter the homeless, not only with a house of bricks, but by sheltering with the love, kindness, and thoughtfulness to the throwaways of society, the unwanted and unloved, sharing their pain and being there so they can be somebody to somebody.   This is the Nativity of Jesus, who became poor to serve the poor.  May we keep her words in our heart, minds, and soul, as we love God by loving our neighbor with all our strength.