Homily for the Week of November 4, 2012

HOMILY: 31ST week in Ordinary Time, B 2012 Deu 6-2-6; Ps 18-2-3,47; Heb 7:23-28; Mk 12: 28-34 A political race for President of the United States ultimately comes down to two persons, squaring off through a marathon of campaign stops and speeches seeking to win the hearts and hopes, and the ultimately the votes, of the American people. But a year ago,before the two major political parties fielded their respective candidates for the general election, there was a larger list of hopeful candidates. But in the end the presidential race comes down to just two. But this is the way we like it. We prefer things to be simplified, reduced to choices between few options. Somehow, an ultimate finale between two finalists who have survived the winnowing process, to stand in the last test for the prize, seems like the best and clearest way to settle a complex race. And it is not just in politics that we like this reduction to a final two but in also in high school sports such as football or basketball or soccer. We need a smaller number in order to capture our imagination, to focus our perspective, and to inspire a passionate debate. In the days of Moses, according to our Old Testament reading for today, God gave the people of Israel many commandments to help them know God's heart, and to follow in His ways. These commandments and laws were intended to serve as a blueprint, or a set of instructions, a moral GPS, guiding and guarding God's people through the world. They also helped to distinguish individuals as special people after His own heart. But in the five books of Moses there are 613 unique and distinct commandments given by God through Moses to the people. Try to imagine how you would remember 613 laws or regulations. So the instruction booklet started sounding a bit cumbersome. And so God, knowing our preference for summaries and simpler reductions of complex matters, narrowed the entire its 613 laws to just ten great commandments. He wrote this "Top Ten" out on two tablets of stone, and gave them to Moses to give to the people. It is easier to wrap our minds around 10 commandments, than to memorize 613 laws. But God was not through reducing and summarizing His set of instructions with just this Top Ten. In today's reading from Deuteronomy Moses is instructed to give the people a single sweeping summary of the entire law. Here it is: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. Therefore you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and all your strength. As you might expect, that single sentence carries great weight for those who would be God's people. And to this very day, this phrase ,called the Shema, is repeated every day by faithful Jews. Orthodox Jews write this phrase in small scrolls and place it on the doors of their homes, or in small pouches worn on their arms and around their heads. All of this is to physically remind them, every time they pass through their front door, or stretch forth their hand, or look out into the world, that they are marked by their obedience to this single sentence summary of how God wants them to live. In fact if you remember or were to read the first three of the Ten Commandments you will find that these first three commandments tell us to love God with our whole heart, soul, and strength. The remaining seven of the Ten Commandments talk about what it means to live in loving relationship with one another: honoring parents, no killing, no adultery, no stealing, no lying. Clearly God did not think it was possible to love Him correctly, or completely, in isolation from the way we relate to each other. In fact most of the 613 laws were given to show us in specific details of how we are to live in love with one another. And so we are now to the Gospel which I just read. By the time when Jesus was meeting people in public a law student of the asked Jesus which was the "first" commandment, that is, which is the most important one. How did Jesus reply? Jesus replied by quoting the Shema from Deuteronomy, our first reading, but then added a quote from the Bible book of Leviticus, as if it was a continuation of the same "first" commandment. The quote was: And you shall love your neighbor as yourself." When you think about it, this phrase summarizes the last seven of our Ten Commandments. So the 613 rules are summarized in just Ten Commandments. And even those ten are summarized in just two great commandments, according to Jesus. Jesus ties these two great commandments into one: Love God, love your neighbor. It is as simple, and as profound, as that. Jesus places the love of neighbor in the same category as the love of God These two dimensions - love God and love one another - are two directions of love that are the absolute minimum of God's plan for our lives. These are the twin towers of loving. They are inseparable actually, like giant sequoia trees growing from a common root, since we cannot really love God and despise each other. And we cannot adequately love our each other without the grounding anchor of love for God. Love for God in isolation from love for the neighbor is empty piety, a mere theoretical form of religion that makes no difference in this world. But equally so, those who would serve and love the world apart from the foundation of love and obedience for God, are not able to sustain their desire for good works over the long haul. It all comes down to two. Two paths of love----one pointed vertically to God, toward the heavens; and the other pointed horizontally to humanity, toward our neighbor. Where they meet they form a cross. A cross, where the two beams of love were fastened by a single life poured out for the love of God and for the love of the world. And that is why we make the sign of the cross as we pray. It is why a crucifix is displayed so prominently in our places of worship. We are people marked, and redeemed by the twin beams of love that cross in Jesus. Many civil organizations and programs exist to help people in need. Billions of dollars are spent by political officials to show caring for those in need. But these efforts often leave people feeling empty, hurt and lonely. It is because they are not empowered by the love OF God, and the love FOR God that is seen in the love of our neighbors. Without such love, efforts to help others are cold and impersonal. Our care for others must give love a human face, the face of Jesus, always promoting human freedom and dignity.