+ Our gospel passage today sums it all up, doesn’t it – LOVE. It’s all
about love, isn’t it? It always has been, and always will be. Some scribes come
up to Jesus and try to play a game with him: “So, which of all of the hundred
commandments of Moses is number one, which comes first!”
And Jesus, immediately quotes
the top choice: which really is the top choice: 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 the second is just like it: in fact it is directly
hooked up and connected with it: “You
shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
That’s it! and it’s “love,
actually.” But, not Hollywood love, but a real “Love Story” that actually
boggles the mind, in fact, so much, that many people these days don’t even want
to hear about it anymore: GOD LOVING CREATION AND PEOPLE INTO EXISTENCE and
then REDEEMING THEM when the flunked a test he gave them to determine if they
would FREELY love him in return for all his blessings on them.
Yes, loving God FRIST is it!
and since the GOD OF LOVE is intimately bound up with all of creation,
especially people, he’s present there – we can’t say that we love God, if we
don’t love everything that we see, especially people who are journeying with us
back to the Father’s house in the heavenly kingdom.
Meaning: we are at home in
creation that we will encounter today, we are at home with all the people we
will encounter, safely distanced, and face covered, we are at home with all
those we won’t encounter today, or can’t encounter, for whatever reason, we are
at home with all those fighting for their lives with the coronavirus at their
doorsteps, we are at home with those who have lost their jobs because of the
virus, we are at home with those protesting the murder-for-all-to see of George
Floyd, and yes, we are at home with all those errant brothers and sisters who
are using these demonstrations for their own hate purposes, we are at home with
ourselves, therefore, let’s all try really hard to believe these realities and
live like we believe in them: LOVING AS CHRIST LOVED US! because Jesus IS GOD’S
LOVE in the FLESH! – and we are spiritually and really related to him by means
of our baptisms and confirmations.
The first reading exhorts us
not to deny him and these teachings, especially about the New Law of Love -
which absolutely comes first: because if we do, he will deny us FOREVER – and
we just would not want to the see the consequences of that! we just wouldn’t!
“Your
ways, O Lord, make known to me; teach me your paths, Guide me in your truth and
teach me, for you are God our Lover and our Savior!”
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