Category: Uncategorized

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Gospel: Mark 12: 28-34

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
“Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Jesus replied, “The first is this:
    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.
The second is this:
    You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these.”
The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
    He is One and there is no other than he.
And to love him with all your heart,
    with all your understanding, 
    with all your strength,
    and to love your neighbor as yourself
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him,
“You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
 

The Gospel of the Lord.

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In Jesus’ time, there were two major schools of thought. 

Some Jews wanted to expand the Law as much as possible. They were meticulous and exceptionally detailed; so much so that, in addition to the 10 Commandments, they created 613 extra rules to follow!

Other Jews treated the Law like an accordion. They wanted to collapse it down to its very essence.

This is the approach that Jesus takes.

Collapsing the Law, he says the entirety of it – and by extension all of Christianity – can be summarized in a single word: love.

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But what exactly is love?

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Love’s a bit like humility; it’s hard to define. But you know it when you see it. You know it when you feel it. And you know it when you don’t.

Throughout the centuries, poets like Dante have tried to define it with varying degrees of success. For example, he once wrote, “Love is what moves the sun and the other stars.” 

Nice, but a bit too abstract to me.

Shakespeare, on the other hand, got it right.

In one of the most famous scenes from Romeo and Juliet, a young Juliet gazes down upon Romeo from her balcony and says to him:

“Romeo, the more I give to you, the more I seem to have.”

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That’s the very essence of love: the more we give, the more we have.

Juliet lived in a world of “we,” not “me.”

Married couples and parents understand this well. Think of how delighted you are when you see your children succeed.  

Or the delight teachers experience when they teach their students how to read.

Or the sense of meaning we find when giving the perfect gift, forgiving a neighbor, or volunteering to help the most vulnerable among us.

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If Juliet is right, then the more we give to anyone, the happier we become. 

This is why love fulfills the Law; it’s the force that moves the sun and the other stars. 

So, how can we love another person – how can we give more of ourselves away – today?

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Gospel: Matthew 5: 17-19

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments
and teaches others to do so
will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Dorothy Day was a social activist who became a Catholic after giving birth to her first child. 

Holding her newborn tenderly against her chest, she realized there had to be someone to thank for the gift of life.

But Day not only came to believe in God’s existence; she also conformed her life to that belief, deciding to live above a soup kitchen in New York City for the next several decades.

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Most people wouldn’t jump at the chance to call a soup kitchen “home.”

But Day made it her mission to serve the poorest in New York City, because she understood that the same God who created her child was the author of every other life, making all humans equally deserving of love.

As she once wrote, “Christians are commanded to live in a way that doesn’t make sense unless God exists.”

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Do we live that way, as if our lives don’t make sense unless God exists?

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Consider the question in the context of the core Christian tenets: salvation; charity; generosity; forgiveness; hope.

Do our lives reflect these values?

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This is how we fulfill the Law, as Christ proclaims in the Gospel, by living in a way that doesn’t make sense.

Unless God exists.

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Gospel: Matthew 18: 21-35

Peter approached Jesus and asked him,
“Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive him?
As many as seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.
That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who decided to settle accounts with his servants.
When he began the accounting,
a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.
Since he had no way of paying it back,
his master ordered him to be sold,
along with his wife, his children, and all his property,
in payment of the debt.
At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’
Moved with compassion the master of that servant
let him go and forgave him the loan.
When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants
who owed him a much smaller amount.
He seized him and started to choke him, demanding,
‘Pay back what you owe.’
Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’
But he refused.
Instead, he had him put in prison
until he paid back the debt.
Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened,
they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master
and reported the whole affair.
His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant!
I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.
Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,
as I had pity on you?’
Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers
until he should pay back the whole debt.
So will my heavenly Father do to you,
unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Corrie ten Boom was a Christian who hid Jews in her home during World War Two. 

Eventually she was caught and sent to the concentration camps, where her father and sister died in front of her.

After the War, she began traveling to different churches speaking about the need for forgiveness. 

Little did she realize just how personal that need would be.

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After one of her talks in a church in Germany, a man came up to her, asking for her forgiveness. He didn’t know who she was, only that she was a survivor from the War.

But Corrie ten Boom knew exactly who he was. He was a prison guard who repeatedly tortured her, and even killed her sister.

Upon seeing his face, she was paralyzed with fear and hatred. 

But he said to her, “I’ve become a Christian! I know I did some horrible things, but I’ve received God’s forgiveness. And now I’d like to ask you, as a victim from the War, will you forgive me?”

She could only hate him.

Suddenly, Corrie felt the Spirit of God rushing through her like fire in her veins, and she cried out, “Thank you, Father, that your love is stronger than my hatred and unforgiveness.” 

Reaching out, she said to him, “Brother, give me your hand.” And she hugged him. 

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Corrie ten Boom reminds us that forgiveness is often a divine gift; humanly speaking, there are limits to our ability to let go.

We can forgive someone for stepping on our shoe, but forgiving atrocities committed in war is entirely different.

At some point, God must intervene.

But, “wherever two or three are gathered in my name,” Jesus says, “I am there in the midst of them.” And where Jesus is present, anything is possible.

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