November 4, 2018

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Deuteronomy 6: 2-6; Hebrews 7: 23-28; Mark 12: 28-34
When November turns and we celebrate the feasts of All Saints (November 1) and All Souls (November 2),
we are reminded of those special people who have preceded us and have touched us. They are models of
commitment, of dedication, of faith, of doing those little things that have consistently shown us that life is
more than just about me.
They have put an exclamation point on the fact that love is what it is all about coupled with faith and hope.
It is all about God. God is love. God loves each one of us into existence. God continues to care for each of
His creations every moment of existence till each person comes to be with God in heaven. Is this the goal
that we are working for? Do we feel, ‘Well I’m a long way from my last days, so I have time to work on
this later’. Today’s readings prompt us to take time to examine God’s love and to recommit ourselves to
‘be love’.
Fr. Richard Rohr is an outstanding spiritual writer and teacher. He also has a daily website Center for
Action and Contemplation where he shares his daily meditation. This is free for the asking and I find
tremendously riveting as I continue my journey to the Lord. On October 28, 2018 he shares these words
entitled, ‘Love, the Most Essential Thing.’
“The most powerful, most needed, and most essential teaching is always Love. Love is our foundation and our destiny.
It is where we come from and where we’re headed. As St. Paul famously says, ‘So faith, hope, and love remain, but the
greatest of these is love.’ (I Corinthians 13:13)
My hope, whenever I speak or write, is to help clear away the impediments to receiving, allowing, trusting, and
participating in a foundational Love. God’s love is planted inside each of us as the Holy Spirit who, according to Jesus,
‘will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you’ (John 14:26).
Love is who you are. When you don’t live according to love, you are outside of being. You’re basically not real or true
to yourself. When you love, you are acting according to your deepest being, your deepest truth. You are operating
according to your dignity. For a simple description of the kind of love I am talking about, let’s just use the word
outflowing. This will become clearer as we proceed.
All I can do is remind you of what you already know deep within your True Self and invite you to live connected to this
Source. John the Evangelist writes, ‘God is love, and whoever remains in love, remains in God and God in them’ (1
John 4:16). The Judeo-Christian creation story says that we were created in the very ‘image and likeness’ of God—who
sets the highest bar for this kind of outflowing love (Genesis 1:26-27). Out of the Trinity’s generative and infinitely flowing
relationship, all of creation takes form, mirroring its Creator in its deepest identity.
We have heard this phrase so often that we don’t get the existential shock of what ‘created in the image and likeness of
God’ is saying about us. If this is true, then our family of origin is divine. It is saying that we were created by a loving
God to also be love in the world. Our core is original blessing, not original sin. Our starting point is ‘very good’ (Genesis
1:31). If the beginning is right, the rest is made considerably easier, because we know and can trust the clear direction
of our life’s tangent.
We must all overcome the illusion of separateness. It is the primary task of religion to communicate not worthiness but
union, to reconnect people to their original identity ‘hidden with Christ in God’ (Colossians 3:31). The Bible calls the state
separateness ‘sin’. God’s job description is to draw us back into primal and intimate relationship. ‘My dear people, we
are already children of God; what we will be in the future has not yet been fully revealed, and all I do know is that we
shall be like God.’ (1 John 3:2)
Henceforth, all our moral behavior is simply ‘the imitation of God.’ First observe what God is doing all the time and
everywhere, and then do the same thing (Ephesians 5:1). And what does God do? God does what God is: Love. God
does not love you if and when you change. God loves you so that you can change!”
Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. He is concerned for the well being of the people of Israel
when the time comes for him to leave them. He has been their spiritual guide for forty years. Now Joshua
will replace him and lead these people into the Promised Land. Todays first reading from Deuteronomy
reminds them and us that “… you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with
all your strength.” They must recognize that the Lord alone is God. Nothing can take the place of God in their
lives. They are not to compromise this love by preferring things and goods to God. These verses are called
the Shema from the Hebrew word ‘hear’. This affirms the basic tenets of the Jewish faith.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning in her famous words asked, “How do I love thee?” Jesus asks the same of us today
in saying which is the first of all the commandments. He repeats the Shema and then adds the prescription,
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” So our reflection rests on how do we love God? How do I love God
individually, not just once or on occasion, but how do I live love? How do I love every person who comes
into my life and those who are there all the time? This is who my neighbor is! G. K. Chesterton once
wrote, “The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies—probably because they are
generally the same people.” The absolute best way is to pray for those who we have the hardest time with…
prayer can turn our hearts into love and it is noticeable. They certainly need love and I certainly need
people to pray for me so that I am tuned in to God’s meaning of love and my gratitude for being loved.
Now love can be very simple, like a phone call, or sending a card. It can be a little more time consuming by
visiting, or doing errands, or giving a helping hand. There is no little kind of love…all love is giving,
caring, sacrificing, it involves forgiving and forgetting, it always involves doing. So how am I DOING in
my loving?
I reflect on:
• I look at the examples of how I love God by loving my neighbor as myself.
• Who do I find it difficult to love? What might help change that?
• Have I asked God how much He is loving me right now? Do I do this even when I am in the midst of
sin? Am I afraid to do this?
• Do I sometimes choose to be blind? Or deaf?
• How is my prayer like the pleading of the blind man in today’s gospel passage?
• Jesus calls me to a life of service, how do I respond? Do I sometimes fail to hear His call? Why? Is
something else consuming me?
Sacred Space 2018 states:
“What would it feel like—be like—to love God with all my strength? Have I seen that kind of love in anyone else?
Jesus told the scribe that he was not far from the kingdom of God. What did He mean by that? Was the man’s
understanding coming closer to the reality of the kingdom? When have I felt close to the kingdom of God? What was
on my mind? What was I doing?”