Reading 1 Hos 14:2-10
Thus says the LORD:
Return, O Israel, to the LORD, your God;
you have collapsed through your guilt.
Take with you words,
and return to the LORD;
Say to him, “Forgive all iniquity,
and receive what is good, that we may render
as offerings the bullocks from our stalls.
Assyria will not save us,
nor shall we have horses to mount;
We shall say no more, ‘Our god,’
to the work of our hands;
for in you the orphan finds compassion.”
I will heal their defection, says the LORD,
I will love them freely;
for my wrath is turned away from them.
I will be like the dew for Israel:
he shall blossom like the lily;
He shall strike root like the Lebanon cedar,
and put forth his shoots.
His splendor shall be like the olive tree
and his fragrance like the Lebanon cedar.
Again they shall dwell in his shade
and raise grain;
They shall blossom like the vine,
and his fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
Ephraim! What more has he to do with idols?
I have humbled him, but I will prosper him.
“I am like a verdant cypress tree”–
Because of me you bear fruit!
Let him who is wise understand these things;
let him who is prudent know them.
Straight are the paths of the LORD,
in them the just walk,
but sinners stumble in them.
Responsorial Psalm 81:6c-8a, 8bc-9, 10-11ab, 14 and 17
- (see 11 and 9a) I am the Lord your God: hear my voice.
An unfamiliar speech I hear:
“I relieved his shoulder of the burden;
his hands were freed from the basket.
In distress you called, and I rescued you.”
R. I am the Lord your God: hear my voice.
“Unseen, I answered you in thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.
Hear, my people, and I will admonish you;
O Israel, will you not hear me?”
R. I am the Lord your God: hear my voice.
“There shall be no strange god among you
nor shall you worship any alien god.
I, the LORD, am your God
who led you forth from the land of Egypt.”
R. I am the Lord your God: hear my voice.
“If only my people would hear me,
and Israel walk in my ways,
I would feed them with the best of wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would fill them.”
R. I am the Lord your God: hear my voice.
Verse Before the GospelMt 4:17
Repent, says the Lord;
the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Gospel Mk 12:28-34
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
“Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Jesus replied, “The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these.”
The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
He is One and there is no other than he.
And to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him,
“You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
On Wednesday the 18th day of March 2020, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Mirjana (the visionary at Medjugorje) and thanked her for her faithfulness and told her she will no longer appear to her on the second of each month again.
She left her with a message on love. Here is an excerpt from the message.
My children, you cannot be happy if you do not love each other if you do not have love in every situation and at every moment of your life. My children, in moments of peacelessness and renunciation you just seek the face of my Son. You just live His words and do not be afraid. Pray and love with sincere feelings…
Like my Son, I am also saying to you: love each other because without love there is no salvation.
This message re-affirms the message of today’s Gospel. Jesus told the scribe that the first and the greatest of all commandments is to love God with all our heart, our soul, mind and all our strength.
Secondly to love our neighbour as ourselves.
Sadly, we have changed our own first commandment and we have failed so well in the second. Our first commandment has been to make more money, for some, it is to have more pleasure, for others it is to appear beautiful, to be in charge, to be popular.
Contrary to the greatest commandment, many times we have loved our job, friends, family, our boyfriend/girlfriend, our vacation, our pleasure, our studies, our bottles of beer, our Sunday birthday parties, our Internet and even our religion more than God.
These challenging times have also shown our selfishness, how we have loved ourselves at the expense of others. It is sad to hear people say things like “thank God, corona kills more of elderly people,” we see human selfishness in the way some people hoard food insanely like the biblical rich fool, it is sad to see how people lose their sanity and civility and fight for items in the supermarket. Circumstances like this reveal the selfishness in our hearts.
The words of the first reading are just directly addressed to us, “come back to the Lord your God…say to him, ‘take all iniquity away so that we may have happiness again…’ Assyria cannot save us, we will not ride horses anymore, or say, ‘Our God!’ to what our hands have made…
May this time of compulsory isolation be for us, a time of self-examination, a time of renewal and purification. May it be a period to grow in our hunger and yearning for God, in sincere love and appreciation for one another and to appreciate the awesome things we have often taken for granted.
Sermon preached by Rev.Fr. Emmanuel Okami on March 20, 2020