Readings: Deuteronomy 6:2-6; Psalm 18; Hebrews 7:23-28; Mark 12:28-34
Grace and peace to you my dear brothers and sisters in the Lord.
The First Reading and the Gospel of today are instinctively related, their central message being the love of God and the love of others.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus reduced the 613 precepts into the precept of love for the Scribe who asked Him which was the first (greatest, most important) commandment.
The fundamental foundation of spirituality is love (charity). This is the mistake of many Christians today – people practice stringent spirituality, undertake all kinds of spiritual exercises, disciplines and activities but they are not prompted by the love of God, neither are they driven by genuine love of others. Lack of love renders spirituality deformed and spiritual exercises devoid of any significant divine worth (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
The question today is: Do I really love God and do I love others, as God wants me to?
Jesus tells us that it is not enough to say we love God; we must love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. We must love Him with all we have and all we are.
What does it look like to love God, as we should?
What are the indicators?
Let us reflect on these five concise points.
⦁ He will be our priority and at the centre of our lives. Love of anyone or anything will not override or eclipse the love of God.
⦁ We will seek to be in His presence and enjoy spending time with Him, to talk to Him, listen to Him, to know Him more. When we truly love anyone, we want to spend time with him or her, learning about him or her and telling him or her about us. Love drives us to the presence of the beloved and we just want to linger there.
⦁ We will intentionally avoid whatever displeases Him. For his First Communion, St. Dominic Savio chose the motto – Death rather than sin. Only love will lead us to this point. Perfect contrition is the one animated more by the sorrow of offending the one who loves us infinitely than the sorrow arising from the dread of punishment.
⦁ We will love those He loves. In this case, we will learn to love everyone, especially those unloved by others because He loves them so much.
⦁ We will be willing to do anything He wants us to do and go anywhere He wants us to go. Obedience won’t be a burden. When we love God completely, we no longer want to refuse Him anything or object to Him in anything (John 14:15).
Let us run a test on ourselves using these parameters. How much can we say we love God? I doubt if any of us can claim that our love for God is absolute, which means, we all need to pray for greater love of God.
The second part of the Commandment is loving others as ourselves. However, Jesus upgraded this to loving others as He loves us. He calls it a new commandment in John 13:34 (Mandatum novum do vobis…)
The question before us is: Do we love others as Jesus loves us or made simpler, are we making efforts to love others as Jesus loves us?
We do need to first understand the nature of God’s love because it is the model for loving others.
To love others as God/Christ loves us is:
I. To love selflessly and sacrificially. It was love that prompted Jesus to give everything for our sake. True love is not just an emotion; it finds definitive expression in actions of sacrifice and self-giving. It lays down or gives up something for someone we love.
II. To love others like Jesus is to be able to love unconditionally not because it is earned but because that is how we are loved.
III. To love like Jesus is to be open to forgiving people and to be compassionate instead of being judgemental, cruel or holding unto bitterness, even against our enemies.
IV. To love others like the Lord is to love universally, that is to love everyone without discrimination. This means to see and love God in everyone, irrespective of our differences in colour, language, ideology, religion, race, cultures, nationality, social status, denomination, appearance, personality etc.
V. To love others like Jesus is to love with stability. This kind of love is more than feelings. Feelings change, impressions are clarified and excitement fades. The love of God for us remains, no matter what we do (Isaiah 54:10; Jeremiah 31:3). We are to keep loving people no matter what they do to us. Our love should not be On and Off. This is the way most people love. We love people at once and suddenly after knowing their weaknesses we switch off our love.
Having said this, let us note that love is a theological virtue and a fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is a spiritual fruit that is in each of us through the Spirit, which we have all received (Romans 5:5). Let us nurture this gift, pray for its growth and open ourselves to the Holy Spirit, asking Him to teach us the power of love and increase our capacity to love God and others.
In the long run, we shall be judged not according to how learned we are, how busy we are, how active we are in the Church, our positions and duties in the Church, our social status, worldly achievements or the number of awards we have received, but according to how much we love God and how much we love others.
Love of God and love of others are the two legs on which we walk to the kingdom of God.
Sermon preached by Fr Emmanuel Baraka-Gukena Okami on November 3, 2024