THIRTY-FIRST
SUNDAY OF YEAR “B”
Mk. 12, 28b – 34: Love of God and
Neighbour
Introduction: Moses called on his people to fear the Lord, their God. But
Jesus’ emphasis is on love. The idea of servile fear has been changed to having
a loving care to please God in all things and not to grieve the Holy Spirit. So
if we are sorry for our sins it is because we have perceived God’s love for us.
With this attitude let us make our confession to God and to one another.
Homily: In our Scriptures, big words like
“fear” and “love” often come together. No sooner are we told to fear the Lord
than we hear a command to love him. Then along comes St. John and says,
“Perfect love casts out fear.” So they are paired together and then one
excludes the other. Let’s take an example. A parent loves her child and this
love is expressed in doing all that is good for the child’s development. That’s
something positive and constructive. But then the parent is also very careful
that no harm comes to the child. Harm is something to be avoided. That is the
fear part. Here fear is really the obverse or aspect of love. So the basic
reality is love. And this is the
approach that Jesus would like us to have when addressing the commandments.
Of
the 10 commandments, you will notice that the first three deal with our
relationship to God, and the other seven with our relationship to our
neighbour. Looks like God foresaw it would be easier dealing with him than with
the neighbour. So he was satisfied with giving three for himself. The problem
is the neighbour. Charles Peguy once said, “I love humanity; it’s my neighbour
I hate.” On the silver jubilee of his ordination, a priest had printed on the
back of his souvenir: “To live in love with saints above is all bliss and
glory. To live below with saints we know is quite another story.” Another
priest I knew could only love fellow
priests one at a time. I once heard him say, “I love my brethren, but not in
bulk.” Our neighbour’s faults come to mind all too easily, which blocks our
loving them. So it’s good to recall the little verse: “There’s so much good in
the worst of us; and so much bad in the best of us, that it ill behoves any of
us to rail at the faults of the rest of us.”
The
point is or, should I say, the trouble is that we cannot love God without
loving our neighbour. God has gone and identified himself with criminals,
sinners, and the diseased as the only way he can be visible. From now on love
of God and neighbour condition one another. We cannot see God, so we love our
neighbour, said the woman theologian, Carryl Houselander. And what a
neighbour! And we are told to love our
neighbour as we love ourselves. I guess it’s a very practical starting point.
So let’s see what the point is. The point is that we watch out for our own
interests, looking out for whatever seems to be good for us, and avoiding, resisting
and disapproving whatever impedes or threatens that quest. We go on loving
ourselves in this pragmatic fashion whether we are pleased with ourselves or
disgusted with ourselves. Self-love is remarkably tolerant, maintaining its
devotedness to the self’s real or supposed welfare, no matter how boring or bad
the self manages to become. And this is
precisely what we are asked to do with our neighbour: watch out for their
interests with unrelenting practicality, whoever he or she may be, regardless
how much or how little our neighbour pleases us. The parable of the Good
Samaritan reminds us of how indifferent to personal likes and dislikes this
love is required to be.
But
first of all we must love ourselves. We must neither hate ourselves nor be
self-indulgent. Hating ourselves would result in becoming doormats for others.
Reminds me of the story of the Rabbit that after several births supposedly
became the Buddha. This Rabbit was a very obliging animal, always at the
service of the other creatures of the forest at all hours of the day and night.
One day it was confronted by a tiger that was ravenously hungry. There was no
food around. So the Rabbit thought he would offer the tiger some roast meat. So
he shook himself thoroughly and jumped into the fire, and roasted himself. Oh,
why did he shake himself? To shake out the fleas on its fur lest they be burned
in the fire! We are not expected to be
obliging rabbits. We must love ourselves prudently, and if we do, we shall make
fewer demands upon others, and make it easier for others to love us. Legitimate
self-affirmation, ego-strength and genuine love of self go hand in hand with
love of neighbour. God’s love for us substantiates our legitimate self-esteem.
The more our love of self is rooted in God’s love for us, the healthier and
stronger it will be, and the more it will be linked to the love of neighbour.
God’s love and concern for us is thankfully acknowledged by our continuous need
of his love gift. This is what we do at every Eucharistic celebration.
A
Prayer for Racial Harmony
Father,
you have made us all in your likeness and you love all whom you have made;
suffer not our family to separate itself from you by building barriers of race
or colour. As your Son our Saviour was born of a Hebrew mother, but rejoiced in
the faith of a Syrian woman and of a Roman soldier, welcomed the Greeks who
sought him, and allowed a man from Africa to carry his cross; so teach us to
regard the members of all races as fellow heirs of the kingdom of Jesus Christ
our Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment