___CLICK / HEAR AUDIO OF SUN. Oct. 31, 2021 HOMILY__
__ Click / Watch Video: "Sun. Oct. 31 " (Sat. 5:30 pm Mass)___
● Deuteronomy 6:2-6 ● Psalm 18 ● Hebrews 7:23-28 ● + Mark 12:28b-34 ●
Title: Love. Declaration. Vocation. Equation
[__00-a_] One unusual feature of this Gospel of Mark conversation
is that Jesus and the scribe are so “simpático” or friendly to each other.
Usually, a scribe and Jesus are
antipático or unfriendly, texting back and forth their critiques. Here, they are in perfect agreement.
[__00-b_] The
bottom line here, friends, also is that love of neighbor and love of God are
necessary partners. They are compatible. Each necessitates the other. It even asks us to make sacrifices and not just to be friendly with those who
are usually friendly with us. Jesus
gives us an example of sacrificial love, summarized as:
“But God shows his love for us in
that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
This is what Jesus wants to show the scribe
and you and me. In this Gospel passage, we're told about 3 dimensions or
demonstrations of love – love of God, love of neighbor, and love of oneself.
It may be helpful to see the three as connected
in a way that [ELECTRICITY] or [power
charge] is connected to multiple dimensions of your house or
devices in your house all at once.
The [E] runs
around to all of the devices. And, when your phone is fully charged, you can do
lots of things. The [E] or
electricity or [charge] is
the love.
I'd like to touch on this in terms of the [declaration] of
love, the [vocation] of
love and the [equation] of
love.
[__01_] [declaration] of
love.
God is love. That’s the declaration. The theologian Josef
Pieper who was very influential on Pope John Paul 2nd wrote this
about love:
“to love another person means that we state / DECLARE
“‘it is good that you exist, it is
good that you are in this world“ (Josef Pieper, Faith Hope Love, San Francisco: Ignatius
Press, 1997, pp. 163-164).
In other words, “I love you simply because
you are, because exist.” Is this not the love of parents for children even
before they're born? I love you simply because you are. And, when the child is
small and can neither walk nor talk. The parent loves the child for his
existence.
And by the way, the opposite is true. When
you and I fall into the temptation of despising somebody else, really not
liking somebody else being anxious about somebody else. What do we declare? “I wish the person didn't exist”. Yes, this is pretty harsh, but have I
harbored this thought or been tempted by this thought at times? Yes. have you?
To love God is to acknowledge his existence,
to declare his existence.
Do I thank God for God's existence? For his
mercy? Do I acknowledge his existence? That means we love Go.
The first step in loving a person is to
acknowledge or to affirm the other. And the same is true when loving God to
acknowledge God and as we read in the Gospel:
“You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your
strength” (Mark
12:__)
That's the declaration of love. God’s word is
the declaration of love.
[__02_] [vocation] of love.
What is your vocation or your calling? Often
we think of vocation or calling as something very explicit or formal like being
married, being a mother being a father, being a religious sister, a nun, being
a priest, these are vocations.
But we also have a vocation, a calling, to practice
love and charity, “Love thy neighbor”.
And sometimes love is going to ask me to do
things that I may not want to do. Think
about the electricity or what you and I are plugged into.
Just because something is plugged in and fully
charged, do I have to make use of it? Could I ignore it ?
Love is a vocation and draws us out of
ourselves, sometimes to where we do not want to go or we do not think it is
possible to go..
Peter Kreeft, Boston College Philosophy professor, makes this
observation, asks this question:
But
how can we love someone if we don't like him (her)?
And he says this there, it's, it's possible
to love somebody, even if you don't like him or like her. Because there's
somebody that you love right now, who you may not like, or maybe didn't like
that person yesterday, or the day before. And that person is you. Or me.
We don't always have tender, sweet,
comfortable feelings about ourselves; sometimes we feel foolish, or wicked. But
we love ourselves: we seek our own good. Indeed, the only reason why we feel
dislike toward ourselves and berate ourselves is precisely because we do love
ourselves! We care about our good, so we are impatient with our bad.
And it is important that we also engender
this in young people who might despair about their lives or about their
existence, or even tempted to anxiety, depression, suicide, because they have
experienced “dislike” or displeasure from others.
You can be loved even if you are not liked
! And, your your existence matters. It
is good that you exist. Your existence matters to God matters to you, it
matters to other people by whom you are loved.
Just because someone has expressed “dislike”
it does not mean there is no “love”.
So, we talked about the DECLARATION of love
(in God) and the VOCATION to love our neighbor and ourselves.
Now, the EQUATION of love and the EQUATION of
love in the Gospel.
[__03_] [equation] of love.
I call this the equation of love because Jesus
made himself equal to you and me. The
Incarnation is about an “equation” of his existence in a perfect unity of one
person who is fully divine and fully human.
But, the Son of God also made himself equal
to every child, every every woman and every man, by becoming the incarnate Son
of God.
This equation was demonstrated by his
sacrifice and our salvation. Paul wrote
of this as Christ who is perfectly “godly” or divine makes himself equal to you
and me who are sinful and not yet “godly”.
We need the electricity of his mercy, love,
grace.
“For Christ, while we were still
helpless, yet died at the appointed time for the ungodly. Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for
a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die.
But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died
for us.” (Romans
5:6-8)
God loved us so much that even when we were
sinners, Jesus died for us. Jesus made
himself like a sinner, even though Jesus didn't have any sin. Loving us, he became our equal.
This
equation is Christ’s declaration of love for you.
And isn't this the beauty of giving and
receiving love that we experience the equation or equality of of love. Think
about someone who really loved you or does love you. Maybe this person is a
teacher, a coach, parent, grandparent, someone who was “above” you but loved
you as an equal.
Thus, your existence was important and
affirmed. This is the calling of parents
for their their children. Parents treat their children as equals. It doesn't
mean that the child is identical to the parent or the same as the parent but
equal in value.
[__04_] [conclusion]
In this Gospel passage, we see a relationship
developing between a scribe and Christ Himself. This is notable because the
average scribe represents the "few" among his leadership / group who did accepted Jesus . So, this “view of the few” - of the 1 scribe - shows “what might have
been” – for the “many” other scribes.
It also shows what is still possible for
you and me, to be his disciples. We do not have to worry about "what might have been"
God DECLARED and made us in His love,
different and diverse, but we're called to be loved and forgiven for who we are
even loved by Christ when we have sinned against him
In this regard, you (I) have a VOCATION to love
others who are sinning against and trespassing against us.. How can I love
somebody who's sinning against me? Because I know that Jesus loved me. Do I
always carry it out? No.
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