We have all been through some challenging times over through past year. There has been the pandemic that has isolated many of us to keep us healthy. Then there was the civil unrest due racial tensions in many communities including our own. The leaders of our government are engaged in a contentious and uncivilized battle in national elections. There is quite a bit of division in our country and it can be discouraging. What are we to do? St. Paul gives us some good advice: Receive the word in great affliction, with Joy from the Holy Spirt, so that you can become a model for all.
The Word we hear in the first reading from Exodus and Matthew’s Gospel are linked closely by showing love of neighbor. In Exodus the people of Israel were given instructions by God of how to treat people who were in distress, aliens, widows, orphans, and the poor. The people of Israel had all been aliens themselves in exile and had prayed to God to be restored to their homeland. God reminds them that he hears the cry of those in need and cares for them in his compassion.
Jesus is challenged by the Pharisees in the Gospel. There were 613 laws in the
Jewish faith and all were considered of equal importance. It was impossible to keep them all. The Pharisee wanted to know which was most important. Jesus boiled it down to two. First to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. The second was to love your neighbor. Jesus told them this summed up the entire law and the prophets.
The Pharisees made it so hard to be in good relationship with God by keeping so many laws. Jesus made it simple, by showing love, which is what God is. How do we show our love for God? By spending time with him. Jesus instructed us to love God with all our hearts, souls, and our mind. Matthew’s version is a little different than the other Gospels, in Jesus telling us to use our mind, rather than strength. By using our mind spending time reading God’s word in Scripture we can come to know our Lord and how he calls us to live as his disciples. When we really love someone we want to know everything about them. We don’t just spend a few minutes every now and then. We want to know what they like, how they think, and what make them happy so we can show our love for them. The more time we spend with reading God’s word, the more we can come to love Jesus.
How do we show our love for our neighbor? If we keep in mind that each of us is made in the image of God it can help us to love them. By seeing Jesus in each person we can come to love them. Jesus went through the same suffering and pain that many of us go through to save us. We all know that some people are a challenge and it may be hard to love them. This is impossible in our human weakness, but we have received help to do so. The grace of the Holy Spirit in baptism and confirmation gives us the strength to love as God does. The Eucharist we receive as our spiritual food helps us to become like Jesus. When we turn from Jesus in sin Confession helps us to return to a right relationship with God to be in union with him. Through the sacraments it helps us to love others as God loves us.
God’s love is directed toward caring for the needs of others. If we think of love as how we can be of service to others, we can love as God loves. This is a love that brings about unity. By being models of God’s love and doing it we joy we can help bring the change to help our troubled world in the place we have the most influence, in our families and with our friends. By doing so we can spread this love and draw others to be disciples of our Lord Jesus showing our love for God and neighbor.
