LOVE IS THE GREATEST OF ALL COMMANDMENTS.

 

Homily for the 31^st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Fr. Ugochukwu Ugwoke, ISch

Scriptural Texts: Deuteronomy 6:2-6, Hebrews 7:23-28, Mark 12:28-34

 

Dear brother and sister, in the gospel reading of this Sunday, we read that a scribe came up to Jesus (as he journeyed towards Jerusalem) and asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” And citing two passages from the Old Testament- Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18, Jesus answered him that to love God wholly and totally (with our whole being- heart, soul, and mind), and to love our neighbor as ourselves are the first and the second most important of all the commandments (Mark 12:29-31).

In the Hebrew Scriptures, there are 613 commandments but according to Jesus, there are no commandments greater than the love of God and neighbor (Mark 12:28-29). They are the two commandments that unite and undergird all the others. The Law and the Prophets and indeed, the whole of Christian life are summed up on love of God and love of neighbor. As human beings, we are created to love God by loving our neighbors, and to love our neighbors as an expression of our love for God. In loving our neighbors, we love God.

These two most important commandments seem so simple and familiar to us but they truly demand a great deal from us. Love in the biblical sense is concrete and active. Love is not a sentiment. For the love of God to be true, it must be whole and entire. We are to love God unreservedly, with all that we have and are. We must love God above all else. In the gospel readings of some Sundays ago, we saw instances of the rich young man who loved his wealth and material possessions more than God, and the examples of James and John who loved places of honor and glory more than the command to come after Jesus. Let us examine ourselves. Are there things/persons that we love more than God, or things/persons that come in between us and our love of God? As St. Paul admonishes in his letter to the Romans, may nothing separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:31-39).

The love of God and love of neighbor are inseparable. We cannot truly love God that we do not see if we do not love our fellow human beings that we see (1 John4:20). The invitation to love God and to love our neighbor becomes very concrete in the love of neighbor. But what makes the commandment to love our neighbor a bit demanding is that it includes loving even those we disagree with, those we feel are undeserving of our love, those who offend and hurt us and our enemies (Matthew 5:44). If Jesus were to respond to the scribe’s question in our time, given the prevailing cases of cruelty meted against domestic workers, he will likely emphasize that loving our neighbor as ourselves means treating your housemaid and other workers as humanely and justly as you treat your own biological children.

It is not easy to keep these commandments that Jesus thought were the most important. But we have to bear in mind that without love, there is no reason for us to live. As such, we need God’s help each and every day. Let us pray for the grace to love as Jesus has commanded us. May our love of neighbor be grounded in and strengthened by our love of God, and may our love of God be made manifest in our love for one another. Bear in mind that the measure of love is to love without measures.