Wednesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
After mass one day a parishioner asked me what would they need to do in order to be holy. Having just heard the reading of the greatest commandment, I reminded them to love God with their whole heart, mind, and soul, and to love their neighbor. This seemed to be answer to the question of that moment, but I could tell the person was looking for more. It could be the person was hoping for a deeper understanding of what it means to love.
Indeed the word love is used so prolifically in our culture, that sometimes understanding its meaning is difficult to grasp. Loving chocolate is far different than loving God or neighbor. In English then, we use love to mean a great many things, that it makes more ambiguous the spiritual meaning. A similar ambiguity existed in lives of the people in Jesus’ day. This is why both Paul and Jesus use stark imagery to remind the people of the clarity with which they must live.
For Paul, the reminder came in the context of the Ten Commandments, which he connects to Jesus’ greatest commandment. All of law could be summed up into love one another.” This of course seems easy enough. Well, for Paul it seems the community needed clarification. Hence the reminder to not commit adultery, not to steal, not to kill or covet or violate any other commandment. In doing no evil we are best able to love one another.
Jesus is even more brazen in his clarity. If you go to Jesus without first hating your father and mother, then you can’t be his Disciple. Jesus of course is not demanding we hate anyone. However he is demanding of us that we love God with our whole heart, mind, and soul above all other. Imagine, not just do no evil, but love me completely to the point that I am the center of your life.
Loving God, help us to take an inventory of our own lives, so that we more clearly understand Your love. Lord, let our love for you be above all else, so that through our discipleship we can make Your kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Amen!
- Deacon Michael Montgomery