Homily for the Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

The Strict Logic Of Love

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, November 3, 2024

In the Judaism of Jesus’ time, there were hundreds of commandments, laws, rules, regulations that governed almost every aspect of Jewish life. So, it was a common practice among the rabbis to inquire from one another what is the greatest, the central commandment, and the organizing principle of the law. Sometimes to ensure clarity and succinctness, a rabbi was compelled to offer this summary while standing on one foot. Following this custom, a scribe in our Gospel today (Mark 12:28-34) comes to Jesus and asks, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” He is basically asking the Lord to identify, from all the many laws they have, the first commandment. What does Jesus say? He answers with what the ancient Israelites referred to as the shema: “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.” I tell you, this requires a closer examination of conscience. In fact, whenever you are preparing to go to confession, begin the examination of your conscience with this first commandment that Jesus gives: Is God the one Lord of my life? Is God the organizing principle of my life? Who or what is competing for my attention? Who or what are God’s rivals for my attention? Who or what is my ultimate concern? You can also turn the question around and simply ask: Does everything in my life absolutely belong to God? 

I can guess what’s going on in your mind right now. You are probably saying to yourself, “But God is a Spirit being. How can I give myself to a reality that I cannot touch or see? This is where the second command that Jesus gives comes into play. When the Lord was asked by a scribe which commandment is the first, he responds with the shema, but then he places a second commandment alongside it, which is, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” After that, he intensifies the inseparability of these two loves by declaring, “There is no other commandment greater than these.” Why does Jesus do that? By the first century AD, there was already in Judaism a recognition that these two commandments— (love of God and love of neighbor) summarized the two tablets of the Decalogue—the Ten Commandment. If you look at the first three commandments inscribed on the first tablet— prohibition of idolatry, prohibition against taking the Lord’s name in vain, and keeping the Sabbath holy, they are all commandments orientated towards the love of God. In the second tablet of the Ten Commandments— honor your father and mother, don’t kill, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t bear false witness, don’t covet your neighbor’s possessions or wife—these commandments are orientated towards love of neighbor. So, what Jesus is essentially doing is condensing the Ten Commandments down to their essence and to their core, and then linking those cores to the two passages of the Scripture: Deuteronomy 6 (love of God) and then Leviticus 19:18 (love of neighbor) which is not part of liturgical prayer, the Shema. 

But why are the two commandments so tightly linked in Christianity? Because of who Jesus is. Our Lord is not simply a human being, and he is not simply God; rather he is the God-man, the one in whose person divinity and humanity meet. So, it is conclusively and definitively impossible to love him as God without loving the humanity that he has, in his own person, embraced. The strict logic at work here is this: when you really love someone, you tend to love, as well, what they love. What does God love? He loves everything and everyone that he has made. God loves your enemies, your haters, your political adversaries. He loves people of other tribes, races and religions. So, if you want to love God, and you find the move difficult because God seems so distant to you, love everyone you come across for the sake of God. Finally, what does this intertwined love of God and neighbor look like? To answer this question, we have to turn to the saints— St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, St. Maximillian Kolbe, St. Oscar Romero, servants of God, Sister Thea Bowman and Dorothy Day and on and on and on. From each of these saints, we learn what it means in practical sense to love God and neighbor.

May God give you peace!