Reflection on Mark 12:28-34

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Thursday, June 04, 2020

Beloved in Christ, in today’s Gospel Jesus summarized the entire law into two: loving God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. So, to love your neighbor as yourself is the second greatest commandment. In the end, an authentic love of God is expressed and found in the love of one’s neighbor. It is not possible to truly love God while at the same time hate the other. That brings me to the question of love. What is love? 

Love is the act of willing the good of the other and doing something about it. Love is not a feeling. It is not an instinct. Rather it is radical self-gift. It is the authentic giving oneself to the other for the sake of Jesus Christ. To be kind to another so that they might be kind to me is not love. To be nice to someone in my neighborhood so that they might be nice to me is not love. To be helpful to the needy so that when I am in needy they will also be of help to me is not love. To treat a fellow human being justly so that in turn I might be treated likewise is not love. Such attitude is nothing else but an indirect self-interest. It is an indirect self-love. To love honestly is to travel outside of one’s own self-centeredness. It is to resist the diabolical force that compels one to obsessively focus on himself or herself— the I, the me, the mine and the myself. 

The notion of love as the sheer act of willing the good of the other and doing something about it is very much what God did. God created us in love, and when we messed up he redeemed us in love. To continue his act of loving and redemption, he established a Church and left us wonderful sacraments particularly the sacrament of confession and reconciliation through which he continuously forgives us and restores us to grace. 

What else is love? Love is to delight in the existence of another. The Book of Genesis 1:31 tells us that after God looked at everything he had made, he found it very good. Now, at the top of everything God made is human beings. In essence, each of us is very good to God. This explains why the Lord takes delight in his people (Psalm 149:4). If God takes delight in his people, who are you to despise them? God delights in the existence of all people— black, white, and brown. Therefore to despise someone due to the person’s ethnicity or race is fundamentally a mortal sin. It is a deadly sin that violates the theological virtue of love. 

Sisters and brothers, my reflection today won’t be complete if I fail to say something about what happened in our city of Minneapolis 10 days ago. Many of us have been saddened by the violent death of George Floyd. The manner with which his life was squeezed out of him has caused me so much distress and anguish. It has made me question if we are really making progress as a people, as a society, as Christians and as a Church. What is the deeper cause of the killing of Mr. George Floyd? It is nothing but racism. Racism has bedeviled our country for 400 years since the slave trade. Since the year 1600, this evil from the pit of hell has been a problem for this nation. I know that some progress has been made over the centuries. Yet, even after 400 years, that is four centuries, there is still way too much racial hatred and racism both systemic and in the hearts of too many people. For all those who are called by the name of Christ, who profess love for Jesus Christ, who go to church regularly on Sunday, I want each one of us to think about this: For all those 400 years of slavery, slave trade, racism and racial hatred, the overwhelming number of people in this country have been Christians who have heard and read today’s Gospel time and time again. What does that tell us? What does that say about the way we have been fulfilling our mission? What does that say about us? I know that we are all sinners and we are not going to eliminate evil totally. However, what does it say that after a long 400 years, racism is still thriving in our country? What this tells me is that we are not living our baptismal calling. A lot of us have not been authentic. Our view of love is either incomplete or erroneous. The reason why racism is still much of a problem in America is because there are still lots of racists in the church. Let me sound provocative here: racism is still a big problem today partly because some bishops, major superiors, priests, religious men, religious women, pastors, preachers, evangelists, and some church members harbor racial hatred in their hearts. Simply put, there are still way too much racists among Christians. It is a very sad reality that continues to negatively influence quite a number of people in the church. Racism has compromised and corrupted people’s faith, eroded their authenticity and put a heavy break on the mission of the Church. Racism divides the Body of Christ; causes the oppressed to lose faith in the Church and to ultimately abandon the Church. 

In case you don’t know, racism or racial hatred is a mortal sin and it could cost you heaven.