This Weeks Thought from Fr. Bob Warren, SA: Today in our gospel we see Jesus surrounded by Pharisees. Somewhat like hostile reporters hustling a political candidate. Everyone is shouting out a question. A lawyer comes forward, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?” A tricky question because the law had 613 commandments - 248 do’s and 365 don’ts. Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul and strength.” Nothing surprising there. The Jews knew all of this well. But, what startles them is a second commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” It startles them because Jesus proclaims that this second commandment is like the first. Loving your neighbor is like loving God. This startles them because for Jesus the neighbor is the despised Samaritan, the idolatrous gentile and the enemy. It startles them because Jesus weds this commandment to the first, makes them one and says they are greater than all the rest. Live these two and you live them all. Live these two, and you are doing God’s will, His total will. Jesus made enemies of the powerful because He put compassion above tradition, love above law and people above things and institutions. But, Jesus does not just leave the question there. Later on He would elaborate even further. Recall the last supper. He is surrounded by His disciples and He tells them a new commandment. I give you, “Love one another as I have loved you.” So now, He says that our love for one another has to mirror his love for us. How did He love us? You can scarcely count the ways. Each word and each gesture was shaped of love. And, all of this crowned by the last great act of love – crucifixion. No greater love than this to lay down your life for your friend or for an enemy. Even crucifixion was not enough. He never stops giving his very self. How many times have you heard these words, This is my body given for you? What does this all mean to you? How is it possible today to love God above all things? First, get to know God. Do not just know about God, but come to know God, to experience Him, to have Him touch you and you touch Him. You cannot love someone you do not know. How do we get to know God? Talk to Him. We have to communicate with Him, and we call that prayer. I think most of us try very hard to follow those two great commandments to love God and each other and to teach the children to follow that golden rule, yet too often we read about unspeakable cruelty toward others. We ask when will it end and wonder how will this horror affect our world? A social worker in the aftermath of World War II learned about the impact of this brutality first hand and told this story, “If you went into the house, it was like going into a coffin. The people were pale and they had blue numbers on their arms. They were scared to go out, and they would not let anyone in. They only let me in because I was the man from the government. They had both been in Auschwitz. Somehow they had survived. Somehow they had married. Somehow they got to the US. Somehow they settled in Cleveland.” “One day I heard, I swear to you this is true, a scratching inside a closet. I opened the door and there was a small boy. He the whitest and thinnest child I ever saw. He was their child and they were afraid that Hitler would come back from the grave and harm the child. I said to them – You cannot do this, you cannot inflict the pain of history on this child. I got the whole family medical help and found the boy a good school.” “I thought the Second World War was over, but it will never be over for this family. I felt like St. Paul on the road to Damascus. This event knocked me off of my horse. I picked myself up and knew I had to change. I went back to my church. I needed to get back in touch with the source of all love. I could not change history, but I could help heal it.” Some say after mastering the winds, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love. Then, for the second time in history of the world, humanity will have discovered fire.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 12:21:30 +0000
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