[Salvation]

Hear O Israel, and Remember!

Pastor’s Column

31^st Sunday Ordinary Time

November 4, 2012

 

“Hear O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone!

You shall love the Lord your God

with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your heart, with all your strength.

The second is this:

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

                                                          Mark 12:28-30

 

 

          What are the guiding principles of my life? Christ makes it clear that if we put what is important to God first, God will guide everything else and we will be prepared for eternal life! If my life is not pleasing to God, on the other hand, I will be like a shopping cart with a bent wheel—that wants to go its own way, or a pen that skips and doesn’t write as it was meant to.

 

          The Jews call the first part of this passage the great shema, which is Hebrew for hear. To this day pious Jews can sometimes be seen placing this text over a doorframe of their house (a mezuzah) or wearing it on their wrists or foreheads in little boxes (phylacteries).   How differently we might live if we had this scripture as the first thing we read when opening our cell phone or when leaving the house! And what a great way to end the day: a brief review of how I loved God, and how I loved my neighbor.

 

          Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta once pointed out that it is much easier for us to love our neighbor who is far away than the one who is close by. It is wonderful to donate to charities that help the poor or distressed that we will never meet, but what about my “neighbors” around me? This can be a bit more problematic at times.

 

          Prayer and Mass attendance are essential in the life of an active Catholic, but the only way we can know for sure that we love God is when we come out of church or prayer and are driving home! My “neighbors” are all the people God has given me in my life: work, family, extended relatives, friends, people at church, acquaintances, and people we meet by chance each day (especially the problematic ones). When you think about it, these people and the interactions we have with them are the primary vehicles by which we will demonstrate our love for God in this world. In fact, our entire future in heaven depends precisely on how we treat others.  We have heard once again what is most important to God, but will we remember?

                                                                                              

                                                                             Father Gary

[Salvation]

St. Paul Center Blog

The Law of Love: Scott Hahn Reflects on the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted by Dr. Scott Hahn on 10.31.12 |

Love is the only law we are to live by. And love is the fulfillment of the Law that God reveals through Moses in today’s First Reading (see Romans 13:8-10; Matthew 5:43-48).

The unity of God—the truth that He is one God, Father, Son, and Spirit—means that we must love Him with one love, a love that serves Him with all our hearts and minds, souls and strength.

We love Him because He has loved us first. We love our neighbor 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 (see 1 John 4:19-21).

And we are called imitate the love that Christ showed us in laying His life down on the cross (see 1 John 3:16). As we hear in today’s Epistle, by His perfect sacrifice on the cross, He once and for all makes it possible for us to approach God.

Readings:
Deuteronomy 6:2-6
Psalm 18:2-4,47,57
Hebrews 7:23-28
Mark 12:28-34

There is no greater love than to lay down your life (see John 15:13). This is perhaps why Jesus tells the scribe in today’s Gospel that he is not far from the kingdom of God.

The scribe recognizes that the burnt offerings and sacrifices of the old Law were meant to teach Israel that it is love that He desires (see Hosea 6:6). The animals offered in sacrifice were symbols of the self-sacrifice, the total gift of our selves that God truly desires.

We are called today to examine our hearts. Do we have other loves that get in the way of our love for God? Do we love others as Jesus has loved us (see John 13:34-35)? Do we love our enemies and pray for those who oppose and persecute us (see Matthew 5:44)?

Let us tell the Lord we love Him, as we do in today’s Psalm. And let us take His Word to heart, that we might prosper and have life eternal in His kingdom, the heavenly homeland flowing with milk and honey.