Readings: 2 Tim. 2:8-15; Ps.24; Mark 12: 28-34

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.

YOU ARE NOT FAR FROM THE KINGDOM WHEN YOU LOVE GOD AND YOUR NEIGHBOURS

In our journey of faith, we struggle with so many commitments and responsibilities. Oftentimes, we want to know which one should be our priority. What should be the most important thing to focus our energy on? What should become the foundation of all the things we need to do? In fact, we just want to know what is really required of us in this life.

This is the deposition of the Scribe in our Gospel passage today who came to Jesus and asked the same question. In response to his question about which is the greatest commandment? Jesus reminded him of the ‘Shema Israel’ – שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל, the prayer that they knew and recited from their earliest years from which they learned that the most important thing in life is to love God with all their heart, and with all thy soul, and with all their mind; that is, with all the powers and faculties of the soul; as under the influence and guidance of the more noble faculties of the soul, the mind, the understanding, judgment, and will. Jesus then added: that loving one’s neighbour is the second priority.

In other words, loving God with all your heart, with all your understanding and strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself is what is required of us and it is the foundation of all the things we have to do. Jesus set the standard of love not just by the love he was able to show, but the depth of love which he shows by dying for us.

This is exactly what St. Paul is encouraging us to imitate in our first reading, when he said: If we have died with him, then we shall live with him. If we hold firm, then we shall reign with him. If we disown him, then he will disown us. We may be unfaithful, but he is always faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” This is possible only when we understand the true meaning of love and sacrifice and this is what is really lacking in our relationship with God and neighbours.

In fact, a critical look at what is happening in our world today, it is obvious that the world has lost the true meaning of love. This present generation has failed to understand the true meaning and source of love and this can be seen in the kind of fruit we bear. The fruit of love in this generation is so complicated: love has become a tool for selfishness, deception, greed, and emotional and sexual satisfaction. This is because we have abandoned God who is the source and power of love and created for ourselves a mirage in the name of love.

Dear friends, today, we are called to come back to the source of love, God himself, who teaches us that love is an attitude that seeks the good of others despite how we feel about them, he teaches us to be merciful, just as he is merciful. That love is a sacrificial attitude, an attitude that forgives, an attitude that accommodates, preserves, heals and builds up when every other thing fails. This is the kind of attitude the world needs now, the attitude that comes from the pure love of God and neighbours.

But how can humanity recover this power of love and harness it to bear more fruit in our societies where it seems as if true love does not exist? This is possible when we realize that we are products of love and are called to live out our essence, which is to love. Therefore, we can make our choice today to renew our commitment to keeping these two commandments and to reflect on how best we can put them together for our good and the good of humanity for by so doing we will not be far from the kingdom of God. Remember, in you resides that love that is lacking in others.

LET US PRAY: Lord God, in You, is the fullness of love, grant that we may truly love You and our neighbours and so conquer the world full of hatred, self-centeredness, greed and corruption, we ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Do have a blessed day.