20150313 THE RESURRECTED LIFE AS A SHARING IN THE LOVE OF GOD
Readings at Mass
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First reading
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Hosea 14:2-10 ©
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The Lord says this:
Israel, come back to the
Lord your God;
your iniquity was the
cause of your downfall.
Provide yourself with
words
and come back to the Lord.
Say to him, ‘Take all
iniquity away
so that we may have
happiness again
and offer you our words of
praise.
Assyria cannot save us,
we will not ride horses
any more,
or say, “Our God!” to what
our own hands have made,
for you are the one in
whom orphans find compassion.’
– I will heal their
disloyalty,
I will love them with all
my heart,
for my anger has turned
from them.
I will fall like dew on
Israel.
He shall bloom like the
lily,
and thrust out roots like
the poplar,
his shoots will spread
far;
he will have the beauty of
the olive
and the fragrance of
Lebanon.
They will come back to
live in my shade;
they will grow corn that
flourishes,
they will cultivate vines
as renowned as the wine of
Helbon.
What has Ephraim to do
with idols any more
when it is I who hear his
prayer and care for him?
I am like a cypress ever
green,
all your fruitfulness
comes from me.
Let the wise man
understand these words.
Let the intelligent man
grasp their meaning.
For the ways of the Lord
are straight,
and virtuous men walk in
them,
but sinners stumble.
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Psalm
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Psalm 80:6,8-11,14,17
©
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I am the Lord your God:
listen to my warning.
A voice I did not know
said to me:
‘I freed your
shoulder from the burden;
your hands were freed from
the load.
You called in
distress and I saved you.
I am the Lord your God:
listen to my warning.
‘I answered, concealed in
the storm cloud;
at the waters
of Meribah I tested you.
Listen, my people, to my
warning.
O Israel, if
only you would heed!
I am the Lord your God:
listen to my warning.
‘Let there be no foreign
god among you.
no worship of
an alien god.
I am the Lord your God,
who brought
you from the land of Egypt.
I am the Lord your God:
listen to my warning.
‘O that my people would
heed me,
that Israel
would walk in my ways!
But Israel I would feed
with finest wheat
and fill them
with honey from the rock.’
I am the Lord your God:
listen to my warning.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Praise and honour to you,
Lord Jesus!
The seed is the word of
God, Christ the sower;
whoever finds this seed
will remain for ever.
Praise and honour to you,
Lord Jesus!
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Or
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Mt4:17
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Praise and honour to you,
Lord Jesus!
Repent, says the Lord,
for the kingdom of heaven
is close at hand.
Praise and honour to you,
Lord Jesus!
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Gospel
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Mark 12:28-34 ©
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One of the scribes came up
to Jesus and put a question to him, ‘Which is the first of all the
commandments?’ Jesus replied, ‘This is the first: Listen, Israel, the Lord our
God is the one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. The second
is this: You must love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment
greater than these.’ The scribe said to him, ‘Well spoken, Master; what you
have said is true: that he is one and there is no other. To love him with all
your heart, with all your understanding and strength, and to love your
neighbour as yourself, this is far more important than any holocaust or
sacrifice.’ Jesus, seeing how wisely he had spoken, said, ‘You are not far from
the kingdom of God.’ And after that no one dared to question him any more.
THE
RESURRECTED LIFE AS A SHARING IN THE LOVE OF GOD
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: HOSEA 14:2-10; MK 12:28-34
Lent is a
preparation to celebrate and participate in the resurrected life. But what
is the resurrected life if not a sharing in the life of God, in other
words, eternal life. To have this life is to share in the reign of the
Kingdom. For this reason, when the scribe affirmed what Jesus said
regarding the greatest of all the commandments as loving God with all our
heart, soul, mind and strength; and loving our neighbour as ourselves, Jesus,
“seeing how wisely he has spoken said, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of
God.’” That is to say, he was not far from sharing the life of God.
Nevertheless,
in spite of the truth of what Jesus said, yet, the command to love God with
our whole being and to love our neighbour as ourselves is problematic.
Firstly, with regard to the command to love God with our whole being, this
might seem to be an impossible task. For how can we love God so
completely? We cannot even love our loved ones who love us
completely, much less to love God whom we cannot see. We all know that we
fall short of giving our entire selves to God, in spite of our sincerity in
wanting to do so. Furthermore, one might also ask whether God is
expecting too much from us. It seems that this God is too demanding,
wanting all our love. He seems to be desperately in need of our love.
Secondly,
the other command to love our neighbour as ourselves is equally
difficult. Indeed, how many of us truly love ourselves? If
we do, then why is it that we smoke and destroy our bodies and that of
others? Why do we drink and eat excessively? Why is it that we
continue to harbour anger, grudges and resentment in our hearts? Why is
it that we work day and night and neglect our loved ones and friends?
When we do such things, we cannot be said to truly love ourselves. Even
if we do not do all these, many of us find it difficult to accept
ourselves. Maybe we think we are not handsome or beautiful enough,
compared to others. We find ourselves academically not as good as our
friends. We suffer from low self-esteem and often wish we were someone
else other than ourselves. That is why we try so hard to win the approval
of our friends. We seek popularity, recognition and acceptance.
This was the case of the Israelites. They tried to find security in
themselves. “Assyria cannot save us, we will not ride horses any more, or say,
‘Our god!’ to what our own hands have made, for you are the one in whom orphans
find compassion.” But most of all, we find it so difficult to love
ourselves for all the foolish mistakes and decisions we have made in life,
resulting in the state that we are in today. Every time we remember our
past; we cannot but be filled with remorse and regret.
And if we
cannot love ourselves, how can we love others in turn? Love of others
presupposes that we learn to love ourselves. If we cannot accept
ourselves, how can we accept others? If we do not love ourselves for all
our strengths and imperfections, how can we accept our fellowmen who are no
more perfect than any one of us? So, to love others and accept them for
what they are, presumes we are able to love ourselves. Otherwise, when we
begin to discover the person’s weaknesses, we become disillusioned with
them. Aren’t we expecting too much from any human person?
At any rate, why do we bother to love
others? We
justify by claiming that we cannot even take care of ourselves. Isn’t it true
that we always wait for others to love us first? We want others to reach
out to us in love and assistance. But to take the initiative, many of us
would rather not. We feel incapable of loving. This is
understandable. If one is in pain, it is difficult to think of the pain
of others. So when we are so bankrupt in love, we cannot give what we
have not got. Until we are loved, we cannot find the capacity to love our
neighbours.
How, then, do we resolve these apparent
contradictions?
Firstly, we must understand the context of today’s gospel reading. In
actual fact, the reply of Jesus to the scribe is not exactly original. He
was simply citing from Deuteronomy and from Leviticus, the books of the
Torah. The novelty of the citations is that Jesus juxtaposed both
commandments together. For this reason, the scribe could readily
assent to Jesus’ answer. But what are the implications in citing from the
Torah and putting them adjacent to each other?
It means that the commandments that
Jesus mentioned could only be fulfilled in the context of the experience of
God’s unconditional love, infinite mercy and overwhelming power to give life.
This experience was something real and concrete in the history of Israel,
especially in the Exodus experience. The Israelites were nobody before
they became a nation. They were a mob and slaves under the
Egyptians. Yet God showed His gracious love by choosing them to be
His people. He called them to be His own. By so doing, God
showed His mercy to them as well. And by delivering them from the slavery
of the Egyptians, He manifested His power to overcome evil and give life.
Such were the wonders and mighty works of God experienced by the Israelites.
What was more, God remained forever
faithful to Israel in spite of their countless infidelities to the
covenant. This is reiterated in today’s first reading from the Prophet
Hosea. Through Hosea, God assured the people of the Northern Kingdom that
He would continue to love them and forgive them. Yes, He said, “I will
love them with all my heart, for my answer turned from them.” Indeed, God
wanted to deliver them from their enemies, the Assyrians. Thus, He appealed
to the people through the prophet to repent of their sins, the sin of
alienation, of injustice, the lack of love and most of all, reliance on their
own strength and wisdom, trusting in horses, idols and what their hands had
made, rather than on the wisdom and might of God.
So it is clear that the experience
of God’s unconditional love, mercy and power was the basis for the Israelites
to observe the shema, that is, the commandment to love God with all their
heart, soul and strength; neighbour and self. Without this prior
experience of God’s love, mercy and power, one would not be able to love God,
others and self with one’s whole being. For only because the Israelites
experienced how God loved them so totally with His whole being, how He always
forgave them for their sins and how He showed His power over their enemies,
that they in turn could surrender their lives completely to the Lord and love
their neighbour, since they were called to be the chosen people of God, and
most of all, to rely on God’s strength and might. God said through the
prophet, “I will heal their disloyalty,
I will love
them with all my heart, for my anger has turned from them.” For us, Jesus
of course is the love of God in person. He reveals to us the love of God
in His life, passion, death and resurrection. We must come to Him and
experience His love for us if we are to find strength to reciprocate that love
with love for God and our neighbours. Only God’s love in Christ,
especially in His passion, can heal our wounded hearts.
Yes, if
Jesus invites us to love God completely and our neighbour as ourselves, it is
because His nature is love. Regardless whether it is the love of God
or of our fellowmen or of ourselves, we must love all completely and
totally. Without such a love, we cannot claim to be sharing the life
of God, since the nature of God is love, mercy, compassion and power.
If we truly want to share in the life of Christ at Easter, then we too must
cultivate the heart of love of Jesus. For only in loving, in forgiving
and in being open to God’s grace and power, can we share in the life of
God. Thus, in our preparation for Lent, let us pray that the heart of God
be also ours, since to have that heart is to have God reigning in our lives –
the reign of love.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP
OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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