Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B: 31 October 2021
Readings: Deuteronomy 6:2–6; Psalm 18:2–4, 47, 51; Hebrews 7:23–28; Mark 12:28–34
1. Loving completely and wholeheartedly
‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31). These words of Jesus to the scribe put all the controversies, moreover, the trapping questions to an end. Because the scribe recognizes Jesus as good and in turn, Jesus appreciates the scribe saying “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (Mark 12:34).
As Christians, we believe that love is the foundation for our existence here on earth. God created us out of His unconditional love, we believe. In fact, God's love is unlimited, unbound, unceasing, moreover, eternal. That is the reason we have Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity coming in our midst to be like us in everything except in sin. Jesus in his teaching, preaching and healing ministry propagated the same truth that God is love. Without love, everything is useless and has no meaning. That is why either our life in the family or community is built upon this foundation of love. All the more loving with all our heart, soul, mind and strength including loving others as I love myself determines the true expression of God's love.
2. Love is above the law
We cannot simply conclude that Jesus did not like the commandments or the laws of Moses. Jesus not only learnt them from his mother Mary and father Joseph but also adhered to them. He followed them plainly as the way supposed to be. Interestingly Jesus asks his disciples to follow the laws not the way Pharisees do. Jesus admonishes his disciples, "So practice and observe everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach" (Matthew 23:3). In another place, Jesus says: "Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19).
In fact, in the Jewish religious setting, there were 613 commandments of greater and smaller significance. Out of which 248 were called positive commandments which means they were like "do this" or "do that". There were other 365 of them which were called prohibitory or negative commandments. They were like, "don't do that" or "don't do this." The simple folk got confused with this kind of arrangement. Therefore, often the prophets and other teachers had to answer the people how they can be applied depending on the situation. Jesus finds a better way to explain such complicated laws with one word, "love." If we have laws handed down to us from the time of Moses then all of them were given out of love by our God to love one another. It seems like God Himself knew that He would not be ruled by mere laws alone but only through love.
3. Let love determine what we stand for
When we look at our world today, the number of people involved in sharing that love of God with others is simply amazing. God knows to work in our hearts, souls, minds as well as hands. The axiom of St Ignatius of Loyola that "love is ought to be shown more in deeds than words" is certainly a point of departure in every sort of charitable and sacrificial works that we undertake. When others are sick, suffering, hungry or thirsty, we make it a point to reach out to those who are most in need. The recent overwhelming generosity of people in our country to reach out to those who were suffering during the first and second corona wave is impressively beautiful. Many people's hearts, souls, minds and hands might not have moved with this global disaster but there were others who were ready for everything from digging the graves to nursing in the hospitals and houses, to feeding the unfed and so forth. All this can be explained only through love.
One of the deep spiritual experiences we have is that if we love God, everything else falls into place. Perhaps, many a time not the way we want but the way God wants. Going against His Will, and unnecessarily scratching our head and yelling at others unreasonably, does not do any good to anyone at all. Because we need to trust in God who "alone is my rock and my salvation. He is my fortress; I will never be shaken" (Psalm 62:2). Hence, all our efforts should start and end in love alone. Because, God is love (1 John 4:8).
4. God has poured out His love into our hearts
Often it is easy for us to love God and not our neighbour. Perhaps we need to put in our heart, mind and soul is that everyone is made in the image of God. This wonderful and rich imagery is taken seriously and followed in our lives then we don't need further laws or commandments to govern us; we don’t need to steal from people we love; we don’t need to cheat on people we love; we don’t need to kill people we love. We love them. If we love God, and if we love all God’s people in the image of God, we don’t need anything else. In other words, I will not do to others what I would not do it to myself. Let me acknowledge always that God is watching me to straighten my path.
Therefore love is the only law that we are to live by. St Paul tells us so boldly: "And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us" (Romans 5:5). We love God because He loved us first. We love our neighbour because we can’t love the God we haven’t seen unless we love those made in His image and likeness, whom we have seen (1 John 4:19–21). Perhaps our strivings and struggles to love our neighbour sincerely and openly help us to get into the mind of God. And we pray for this grace.
Questions for reflections:1. Can we examine our hearts today and see whether we truly love the members of our family or community?
2. Do we have other loves that get in the way of our love for God?
3. Do we love others as Jesus has loved us (John 13:34–35)?
4. Do we love our enemies and pray for those who oppose and persecute us (Matthew 5:44)?
Gracious Lord, I love you with all my strength. You are my rock, my fortress, my deliverer. My God, my rock of refuge, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold (Psalm 18)! Let me allow you to take into my heart completely. By placing myself into your tender hands, let me breathe you within me wholeheartedly.
O God for You are my Lord and Master. I offer all my actions, intentions and prayers for the glory of Christ Jesus. Let every heartbeat of my life, every thought and action may be accounted in your Holy name. Let your merciful love drench my heart, mind, soul and hands. So that I may have that Holy Will to accept everything my joys and sorrows of this passing and temporary life, so that they find a new expression in the promise of eternity that I am longing for. I make this prayer in Jesus' Holy Name. AMEN.
4 comments:
Dear Olvin,
I'm grateful to you for the powerful and motivational reflections. Great content! Wise words! It's keeps me growing... Feel privileged to be part of your blog... Enriching message!
Beautiful reflection father! Of course our Love for God should be manifested in our life, in our relationship with others.
The reflection is very well articulated which is like addressing to my life. I've been pondering with the help of your depth-reflection, the strategy of love, that Jesus used throughout His life. Journeying with the Lord I find that loving others entails great sacrifice of one's ego and there are many more insights getting from the reflections. May the Lord use you powerfully to heal souls dear Fr. Olvin.
Prayer is very much soul- soothing
Thanks for your beautiful insights. As God's children who are poured out His love, loving God and others are crucial request. Only with God's graces we can love others as ourselves. For sure, this is not a piece of cake, but it is still possible. It is good to go through Questions for reflections. Thanks again. God bless
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