We welcome knights and ladies of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre as we acknowledge Our Lady, Queen of Palestine and of the Holy Land. It is important that we raise up Christians in the Holy Land who have and are continuing to be persecuted for our faith both physically and economically, the result of which is the diminishment of Christianity in the land where Jesus was born, taught, suffered, died and rose. Our Lady, Queen of Palestine, intercede on their behalf.
Our response to the plight of persecuted Christians reflects whether we take to heart what Jesus called us to in today’s Gospel reading.
The truth that God, the Creator, gives life to us all, explains in part Jesus’ response to the question: which of the commandments is the greatest. His response is so significant that it is recorded in three of the four gospels. When something is noted three times in Sacred Scripture it suggests that we ought to pay special attention.
Jesus’ answer is both thought-provoking and easy to remember. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. The second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Someone suggested that Jesus offered the second commandment because while loving God completely is the desire of us all, we do not know how to do that. It is in part through loving our neighbor.
The love he identifies is not the self-focused schmaltzy or shallow love of warm feelings of our individualistic culture. It is true charity which is to love others even sacrificially not for our sake but in humble respect for God the giver of life. St. Augustine wrote: “love of God is the first order of precepts; the love of neighbor is the first order of practice.” Loving neighbor reflects our love of God, essentially faith in action.
Yet living the great commandments is not without its challenges especially the second commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves. The fact is that there are some people who are different from us, who have differing ways of doing things that make us uneasy or who just annoy us. However we are not called to relate to everyone in the same way. We are called to care about one another as fellow children of God.
To love God completely redirects our thoughts, overcomes our emotions, and opens us to the needs of others even those we have a hard time liking. The first reading from Exodus identifies neighbor to include the alien, meaning the immigrant legal or not, the widowed, orphans, the poor and all who are vulnerable. That includes those around the world like in the Holy Land and at home who are caught in the midst of violence, those whose unhealthy living conditions foster poverty, and those whose lives and hopes are shattered by selfish economic forces or misuse of government power.
The English convert and writer G.K. Chesterton wrote, “We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next door neighbor .” He also noted that “The Bible tells us to love our neighbors and also to love our enemies, probably because they are generally the same people.” God made them and us, one by one and loves them and us one by one. Each of us is a masterpiece of God’s love, even it imperfect in some human way. It is often from the little things that we learn what is in our hearts that blocks or empowers us to love God more by loving our neighbors as ourselves.
The story is told of a family which was out for a drive when the two children in the back shouted, “Daddy, daddy, stop the car. There’s a kitten back there on the side of the road.” “So what,” said the dad. “But daddy, you must stop and pick it up. If you don’t it will die.” “Well, then it will have to die. We don’t have room for another animal, our house is already a zoo. No more animals.” “But daddy, are you just going to let it die? We never thought our daddy would be so mean and cruel as to let a kitten die.” The mother suggested, “Dear, you’ll have to stop.” So he turned the car around and went back to where the kitten was. It was just skin and bones. When he reached down to pick it up, with a blast of energy the kitten bristled and hissed, claws exposed. He picked it up by the loose skin and took it to the car. “Don’t touch it,” he told the kids, “it probably has leprosy.” When they got home the children gave the kitten several baths, plenty of milk and fixed a place for it to sleep in their room. Several weeks later the unhappy father felt something rubbing against his leg. It was the kitten. He reached down careful that no one was looking. The kitten this time did not bear claws or hiss. Instead it arched its back to receive the tender touch. It was no longer that frightened, sick kitten on the side of the road. Nor did the dad view it as an annoyance. Love and caring made the difference. Love and caring can change those we encounter and can change us even if at first we would rather not.
For me the crucifix is a powerful source of spiritual encouragement. When we pray before the crucifix we can visually see the interconnection between the greatest commandments. There is the vertical beam symbolically pointing us up to God in our need and he reaching down to us in his love. We see in the horizontal beam his reaching out and embracing all peoples. At the center is Jesus Christ, where human and divine meet. Jesus died out of obedience to the Father: This is the greatest and first commandment – love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind. Jesus also died and rose for us: the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself. He continues that sacrifice in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass through which we can receive the grace to live the greatest of the commandments, both of them.
May we pray for that grace to love God completely reflected in how we care for and about one another.