“If you love, you will be loved.”
“If you love, you will be loved.”
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
There is an immortal poem written by Englishman Leigh Hunt about a man called Abou Ben Adhem. Abou Ben Adhem woke from his sleep one night and saw in his room an angel writing in a book of gold the names of those who love God. “And is mine one?” inquired Abou. “Nay, not so,” replied the angel. “I pray thee, then, said Abou, “Write me as one who loves his fellow men.” The following night the angel came again and displayed the names of those who love God and Abou Ben Adhem’s name topped the list.
This poem makes the point that true love of God and true love of our fellow human beings are like two sides of the same coin. One cannot exist apart from the other. That is what we find in today's gospel. Jesus is asked about the first of all commandments in the law.
“Which is the first of all the commandments in the law?” This question was very important for the Jews, because they had so many commandments, six hundred and thirteen of them. And they had to follow them all. To answer to this question, Jesus first cites a passage from Deuteronomy that everyone knew because it was the profession of faith that pious Israelites recited every morning and evening, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with your soul, and with your mind, and with all your strength” (Deut 6:4-5). And then Jesus adds, “The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” The answer of Jesus was clear: the first and greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind”. Notice the three “alls”: all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. If you really love, your love cannot be half your heart, half your soul and half your mind. To love is to give oneself totally to the beloved one. We read in the book of the prophet Isaiah: “The Lord said: this people draws near with words only and honors me with their lips alone, but their hearts are far from me” (29:13).
The second commandment is like the first: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”. In his first Epistle, St. John gives us an acid test to prove whether we love God and Neighbor in chapter 4. If not we are liars. He writes “Anyone who says, ‘I love God’, and hates his brother, is a liar, since a man who does not love the brother that he can see cannot love God whom he has never seen. So this is the commandment that he has given us, that anyone who loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:20-21)
If we love God we prove our love by keeping his commandments.
To direct us all our lives to love God with our heart soul and mind, God has given us guidelines, the Ten Commandments. The commandments are not meant to restrict us, not meant to make life less enjoyable for us, but are meant to make life more enjoyable for us because they save us from the potholes that we could fall into going through life. The commandments are not to restrict our behavior but show us the values in life to love, the qualities in our personalities to develop for happiness in life.
The first three of the Ten Commandments show us how to love God.
1. I am the Lord your God, you shall not have strange gods before me.
2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
3. Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.
The next seven commandments show us how to love our neighbor.
4. Honor your father and your mother.
5. You shall not kill.
6. You shall not commit adultery.
7. You shall not steal.
8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.
In today’s gospel Jesus is reacting against a one-dimensional understanding of love. For Jesus, true love must express itself in three dimensions. These three dimensions are (a) love of God, (b) love of neighbor, and (c) love of oneself. The first two are positively commanded; the last one is not commanded but presumed to be the basis of all loving. The commandment to love your neighbor as yourself presumes that you love yourself. If you hate yourself you will not bother to love God or neighbor! If you close yourself up in your selfishness, you do not love yourself. If you are turned in on your own interests, you hate yourself; you are ruining your life and making yourself sad.
Again, Jesus took the commandments a step further. He told us that what is in our heart is also important, not just the externals. Jesus told us we can offend God even by the way we think. So to love God with all our heart, soul and mind and to love our neighbor as ourselves we have to begin with our thoughts. What way do we think? What are our attitudes? Some people say that even when they do something good they get something out of it for themselves, a bit like job satisfaction, so we can have very mixed motives sometimes. If we do not always think in a very Christian way I believe we can take control of our thoughts. We can correct our way of thinking. If we want to love God with all our heart, soul and mind, and our neighbor as ourselves, if we want to feed our minds with Christian thoughts, we need to cut out unchristian influences. A beautiful Christian ideal to have before us is that Jesus is in the other person. Jesus is in the person next to me, the person behind me, in front of me, in the person I live with and work with.
You might have paid attention to the captions we read when we travel by subway “The man who stands by the door will someday will be your Boss”
So my dear brothers and sisters, Love your God and neighbor because if you love, you will be loved.”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
There is an immortal poem written by Englishman Leigh Hunt about a man called Abou Ben Adhem. Abou Ben Adhem woke from his sleep one night and saw in his room an angel writing in a book of gold the names of those who love God. “And is mine one?” inquired Abou. “Nay, not so,” replied the angel. “I pray thee, then, said Abou, “Write me as one who loves his fellow men.” The following night the angel came again and displayed the names of those who love God and Abou Ben Adhem’s name topped the list.
This poem makes the point that true love of God and true love of our fellow human beings are like two sides of the same coin. One cannot exist apart from the other. That is what we find in today's gospel. Jesus is asked about the first of all commandments in the law.
“Which is the first of all the commandments in the law?” This question was very important for the Jews, because they had so many commandments, six hundred and thirteen of them. And they had to follow them all. To answer to this question, Jesus first cites a passage from Deuteronomy that everyone knew because it was the profession of faith that pious Israelites recited every morning and evening, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with your soul, and with your mind, and with all your strength” (Deut 6:4-5). And then Jesus adds, “The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” The answer of Jesus was clear: the first and greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind”. Notice the three “alls”: all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. If you really love, your love cannot be half your heart, half your soul and half your mind. To love is to give oneself totally to the beloved one. We read in the book of the prophet Isaiah: “The Lord said: this people draws near with words only and honors me with their lips alone, but their hearts are far from me” (29:13).
The second commandment is like the first: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”. In his first Epistle, St. John gives us an acid test to prove whether we love God and Neighbor in chapter 4. If not we are liars. He writes “Anyone who says, ‘I love God’, and hates his brother, is a liar, since a man who does not love the brother that he can see cannot love God whom he has never seen. So this is the commandment that he has given us, that anyone who loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:20-21)
If we love God we prove our love by keeping his commandments.
To direct us all our lives to love God with our heart soul and mind, God has given us guidelines, the Ten Commandments. The commandments are not meant to restrict us, not meant to make life less enjoyable for us, but are meant to make life more enjoyable for us because they save us from the potholes that we could fall into going through life. The commandments are not to restrict our behavior but show us the values in life to love, the qualities in our personalities to develop for happiness in life.
The first three of the Ten Commandments show us how to love God.
1. I am the Lord your God, you shall not have strange gods before me.
2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
3. Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.
The next seven commandments show us how to love our neighbor.
4. Honor your father and your mother.
5. You shall not kill.
6. You shall not commit adultery.
7. You shall not steal.
8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.
In today’s gospel Jesus is reacting against a one-dimensional understanding of love. For Jesus, true love must express itself in three dimensions. These three dimensions are (a) love of God, (b) love of neighbor, and (c) love of oneself. The first two are positively commanded; the last one is not commanded but presumed to be the basis of all loving. The commandment to love your neighbor as yourself presumes that you love yourself. If you hate yourself you will not bother to love God or neighbor! If you close yourself up in your selfishness, you do not love yourself. If you are turned in on your own interests, you hate yourself; you are ruining your life and making yourself sad.
Again, Jesus took the commandments a step further. He told us that what is in our heart is also important, not just the externals. Jesus told us we can offend God even by the way we think. So to love God with all our heart, soul and mind and to love our neighbor as ourselves we have to begin with our thoughts. What way do we think? What are our attitudes? Some people say that even when they do something good they get something out of it for themselves, a bit like job satisfaction, so we can have very mixed motives sometimes. If we do not always think in a very Christian way I believe we can take control of our thoughts. We can correct our way of thinking. If we want to love God with all our heart, soul and mind, and our neighbor as ourselves, if we want to feed our minds with Christian thoughts, we need to cut out unchristian influences. A beautiful Christian ideal to have before us is that Jesus is in the other person. Jesus is in the person next to me, the person behind me, in front of me, in the person I live with and work with.
You might have paid attention to the captions we read when we travel by subway “The man who stands by the door will someday will be your Boss”
So my dear brothers and sisters, Love your God and neighbor because if you love, you will be loved.”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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