Exodus 22:20-26; 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10; Matthew 22:34-40
'I get so lonely I could die.'
These lyrics from the well known song Heartbreak Hotel by
Elvis Presley may speak to our own life experience. Indeed, there's something
logical about putting loneliness and death in the same sentence.
Man is made for relationship. He is who he is because of
who he loves and whom he is loved by. The philosophers would say that man in
relationship is a human person; man alone (without a sense of
loving or being loved) is only a human being, i.e. a human who merely
exists.
Man is made for love. The guests in Heartbreak Hotel know
this only too well. Without love human life loses its meaning and becomes
alienation which gives birth to the words: I get so lonely, I could die.
How important then to listen carefully to Jesus' words
today: You must love… .
They are framed as a command but are actually an
analysis of what gives human life its fundamental significance.
A careful reading of the first three chapters of the book
of Genesis will show that in the beginning, from the moment of our
creation, God established us in four relationships. These relationships are part
of the very substance of our human lives: our relationship with God, with our
self, with others, and with the natural world. These four
relationships shape the very path we must walk to reach our destiny and
therefore, thanks to our fallen human nature, constitute the decisive stumbling
blocks on our journey.
It is in our relationship to God, to our own self, to
others and to the natural world, wounded but redeemed, that we now live out our
daily lives as disciples of the Lord. How important, then, that we get them
right, because it is so easy to get them wrong!
It may come as a surprise, for example, to hear a married
couple say, 'We have always loved God more than we love each other.' Or for a
father to say, 'My first love is for my wife, and only then for my children.'
Obviously there is much more to say in order to finetune exactly the
hierarchy of love I am attempting to assert here. But the truth remains that we
can get our relationships wrong all too easily and cause, thereby, significant
disorder in our own life, and in the lives of those who form our relationship
network.
I love to hear engaged couples telling me they have decided
to live chaste lives until marriage because they 'want to be faithful to God!'
These couples have got it right. They have put God before themselves; they are
in a right relationship with him and therefore, with each other.
You must love the Lord your God … this is the greatest
and the first commandment.
And when they marry this couple will be in a right
relationship with their children who have a right to be born within a
loving, stable, committed and secure marriage.
To get the order of our love relationships right is to
bring about the 'order of God's love'. St Ignatius sometimes used this beautiful
phrase. It is an order which brings peace and life, health and fruitfulness.
The greatest and first commandment is to love God. How?
With all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. The second
commandment is to love our neighbour. How? As yourself. This is the
divine vision and plan according to which we were 'put together' in our mother's
womb.
It is a great tragedy to meet individuals who live as
though they understood the first and only commandment to be: I will love my
self with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my mind. Let us pray
to be preserved from this catastrophic corruption of our true nature.
Next week each of the three readings affirms what we
sometimes forget - that we are all brothers and sisters, children of the one
Father. The love we have for our self is the definition, the template, of the
love we should have for each other, and there must be no exceptions.
As we have just heard in the first reading today we must
not molest the stranger because we ourselves were once strangers in the
land of Egypt. We must not be harsh with widows or orphans or the Lord will make
our wives widows and our children orphans. The consequences of breaking the bond
of love between ourselves and our neighbour are severe.
Christian warfare is fought on the battlefield of
relationship. Let us examine ourselves in the light of the great commandment of
love, and allow the Lord's words to be both encouragement and correction for us.
5 comments:
Yes, powerful homily Father, thank you. Funny how we love to hear about love - it's a topic that naturally captures our attention and interest, that our hearts warm to - reflecting how fundamental it is to us being human.
"Encouragement and correction" - exactly what we need! And we can only get what we need, if preachers are willing to preach the truth of our Catholic faith. Thank you for doing your bit always.
My immediate response to this homily, which I found to be so helpful and encouraging, was to hope that a great number of people will read it and absorb the teachings so clearly and beautifully expressed.... teachings so sorely need today by our so very secular society. May your words of truth be heard far and wide. Thanks, Father John.
Hi Father,
I take your homilie of this Sunday for a group of English speaking tourists from the US who want a Holy Mass in English in my parish.
Thanks a lot and may the Lord bless your ministry.
A priest from Central Europe
fr. M.S.
I like the idea that God has created us to be in four relationships. Thank u, Fr.
Thank you for your comment Fr Asaka. I like that idea too. I teach it to the children in my school and to my catechumens. It is there in Genesis and also the effect of sin on each of these four relationships.
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