Homily for Regional Conference of Catholic Charismatic Renewal 2019
Hos 14:2-10; Mark 12:28-34
Introduction
Friends in Christ, today's gospel about the greatest commandment of love, is one that perhaps we have heard a million times. And so for today's homily, I would like to reflect on it through the lens of the theme of this conference "The Spirit of Truth," looking at the relationship between the three: the Spirit, Truth and Love.
Scripture and Theology
The first relationship is that between the Spirit and Truth. Jesus promised that when the Spirit of truth would come he would guide us to all truth. Jesus added that, “He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears” (Jn. 16:13).
Jesus made this promise perhaps because he himself was a beneficiary of the work of the Spirit: being conceived by the power of the Spirit, being revealed to the world at his baptism when the Spirit came upon him, but especially being anointed by the Spirit for his work, especially his work of teaching.
And so, when asked the question: "Which is the first of all the commandments?" Did you notice where Jesus turned to find the answer? Not the Google or Wikipedia of his time! His first port of call was God’s Word, the Scriptures that God's Spirit inspires (CCC 688). He turned to what we call the Old Testament, but at the time, the only Testament. And therein he found the truth, the answer to the question about the greatest commandment.
First, Jesus went to Deuteronomy 6:5 and pulled out this injunction of God: "Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” And this he said, is the first and greatest of all the commandments.
But there is more. Although the lawyer asked for one commandment, Jesus gave him two. For the second commandment, Jesus drew from another Old Testament book, Leviticus 19:18: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself." And he concluded: There is no other commandment greater than these."
What Jesus does here is ingenious and novel. He takes what were hitherto seen as disparate commands and joins them together. Yes, the people were aware that they must love God; yes they were aware that they must love their neighbour; but they were not aware that the two loves were intimately connected.
My friends, I would like to suggest that what Jesus is doing here, drawing from the Spirit-inspired Scriptures, is the same task that he gave to the Church, to her Magisterium. For the last two Thousand Years, under the inspiration of the Spirit, the successors of Peter and the Apostles have similarly gone back to the Scripture and Tradition to draw out and shed new light upon the truth for us. For like the people of Jesus' time, we also don't always have the capacity to interpret the Word of God on our own and draw ever new inspirations from it.
And that brings us to the second relationship, that between truth and love. Following the approach of Jesus, of drawing ever new inspirations from Scripture and Tradition, Pope Benedict surprised everybody when for his third encyclical he wrote, not about some obscure theological concept or the liturgy, but about love. Like Jesus he decided to teach about love in a new way. As the title of that encyclical says, Caritas in Veritate, Love in truth, he wrote about a love that is based in truth, not merely a love that is “a pool of good sentiments.” Pope Benedict told us: “Only in truth does charity shine forth, only in truth can charity be authentically lived. Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity.” And this truth he said is based not just in reason, but starts with faith.
True love starts from God, with God as the object of love, with God as the source of love. “The Lord our God is Lord alone!” That in itself is good enough reason to love him. And that is why: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” How can we not love him who has loved us first! Anything we do thereafter is not only a consequence, but really is a fleshing out of our love for God. And that is why the second commandment, love your neighbour as yourself flows from the first.
The Catechism reminds us that: “The Decalogue must be interpreted in light of this twofold yet single commandment of love, the fullness of the Law” (CCC 2055). And so in observing the commandments of the first tablet of Moses, worshipping God alone, not profaning his name, and keeping the Lord’s Day holy, we are truly loving God. In observing the commandments of the second tablet, by respecting our parents and elders, protecting life, observing marital fidelity, respecting the property of others, speaking the truth, avoiding envy of others’ property and of other's spouses, we are truly loving our neighbour.
I once heard a story about a married couple, who for years went to the opera. Several years into their marriage, however, the husband accidentally let it slip that he did not like opera at all. Then his wife asked him, "darling, why then did you go with me to the opera all these years?" He said: “I loved the opera, because you love the opera and I love you.” That is when the wife also said, “I too only went to the opera, because I thought you loved it and since I loved you, I had to love it.” They cancelled their season tickets and found a new hobby.
What this couple was doing exemplifies Saint Thomas Aquinas' definition of love: "to will the good of another" (CCC 1766, St. Thomas Aquinas, STh I-II,26 4). And this other whose good we must will need not be likeable, cute, useful, pretty, intelligent, even virtuous. After all, if truth be told, often we are not these things but God still loves us. That is why another successor of Peter, Pope Francis has consistently reminded us to go out to the peripheries and love or rather actively will the good the people not usually loved, just like Jesus himself did to the lepers, the tax-collectors and other sinners. Without condoning or loving their actions, we must will the good of God's other children, especially in the seven corporal works of mercy. We do this because God loves them and we love God.
We see this truth-filled love when a pregnant woman diagnosed with cancer decides to bring her baby to full term knowing well that she herself will probably die in the process; or the mother of a sick child with a disability, who fights for the life of that child, when doctors tell her to give up. These mothers all love in this radical way, because their love is based in Truth.
I want to share the story of Sr. Leonella Sgorbati, an Italian Consolata sister shot dead in Somalia in 2006. A few months before her death, she was asked why she worked in that war-torn country? Why she started a nursing school to serve this majority-Muslim country? She said: “I know I am taking risks, I know I could be risking my own life, but I will do it for love. . . . . I cannot be afraid and at the same time love. I choose to love.” Sr. Leonella, recently Beatified by Pope Francis, chose to love those she served, because she loved God first.
Having seen that love must be based in truth, the other relationship that we must explore is the reverse, of truth being based in love. In his letter to the Ephesians 4:15) St. Paul speaks about living truth in love, veritas in caritate. In living out the prophetic office, every Christian is called upon to teach the truth of the gospel. In fact the first three spiritual works of mercy basically enjoin us to teach the truth, when we instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful and admonish sinners. Not only is doing this is an act of love, but even the way we do it, must be in love. How often today, especially in the social Media, is the truth of the gospel is shared, not in love but in hate, not for building up but for bringing down the other!
Conclusion
My friends, may this teaching of Jesus remind us of the only source of the Truth, which is, God's Spirit-inspired Word, as interpreted for us by those who have succeeded the apostles. May this Word of God teach us the truth of what love is, a willing of the good of the other, that is inspired by God himself, who loved us unto death, a death and resurrection which we are about to celebrate in the Eucharist. And at the end of the Eucharist, when the deacon will dismiss us with the words, Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life, let us hear therein the clarion call to go forth and share what we have received here with others in love.
And if we need further inspiration for doing this, we can return to the gospel passage itself. For at the end of the dialogue the scribe accepted the teaching of Jesus and confessed that love of God and neighbour were indeed the greatest commandment. And so, Jesus told him: "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." May we also, at the end of every day when we make our examination of conscience before going to bed, hear those same words, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God," because we too will have loved God and our neighbour that day. But especially at the end of our days on earth, after a lifetime of caritas in veritate (love in truth), and veritas in caritate (truth in love), may we hear the words of Jesus from Matthew's gospel: "Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."
Yet another great homily!
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