31ST SUNDAY HOMILY OF THE ORDINARY TIME — YEAR B
31ST SUNDAY HOMILY OF THE ORDINARY TIME — YEAR B
HOMILY THEME: LOVE IS THE GREATEST GIFT
BY: Fr Stephen ‘Dayo Osinkoya
Deut. 6:2-6, Heb. 7:23-28, Mk. 12:28-34
In our first reading of today, we hear Moses urging the children of Israel to “keep and observe what will make you prosper and give you great increase. But the question that follows is” What does it mean to prosper? This question is asked because our understanding of prosperity would determine what means we would employ to be prosperous. Here we are not looking at material prosperity, but spiritual prosperity.
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In the gospel, Jesus states the two great Commandments, and the first is this: You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. And the second is this, that you must love your neighbour as yourself. These two Commandments complement each other. They are like the two sides of the same coin. As Pope Benedict XVI says, “the love to God and the love to your neighbor are thus inseparable, they form a single commandment. But both live from the love that comes from God, who loved us first.” (“Deus caritas est” December 25, 2005) To love God is to love neighbour. To love God whom we can’t see is to love our neighbour whom we can see.
A religious nun was writing about her vocation story and she recalled a childhood experience that probably planted the seed for her vocation. She wrote:
I never liked Tracy, though she lived two doors from me, and she is about my age. I thought she looked funny and strange (later I came to know that she has “Downs Syndrome”). I never liked to talk to her, much less play with her.
One day, my mum invited her and her mother over for lunch. My mother made me sit directly across the table to Tracy. I frowned and showed my displeasure but my mum glared at me and she was not going to change the seating arrangement.
I sulked over my lunch. After lunch came the dessert which is mango pie, which was my favourite. My elder brother knew that I was sulking and to taunt me further, took a double share of the pies. There was a piece for everyone at table, no more, no less.
When the tray of pies was handed to Tracy, there was only one piece left and it was obviously for her. Tracy looked around the table and she looked at my empty plate. And then she passed the tray with that last piece of mango pie to me and said only two words, “You take”.
I felt terrible then, but I took it. But something in me made me cut that piece of pie into half and I gave one half to Tracy.
When I did that, something strange happened to me. Tracy didn’t look funny anymore, neither did she look strange. She has become my friend. That was one of my early experiences of love for neighbour.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 41 observes that “All creatures bear a certain resemblance to God, most especially man, created in the image and likeness of God. The manifold perfections of creatures – their truth, their goodness, and their beauty – all reflect the infinite perfection of God.”
So the commandment to love God entails love of neighbour. But observing the second commandment also leads us back to God and keeping this commandments as a rule of life then becomes a means to spiritual prosperity for us. Jesus tells us “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (Mk 12:34).
Beloved in Christ as we go into the new month this week of “All Saints” let us pray that God may grant us all, especially young people who seek meaning to LOVE, moments of encounter, inspiration, mission and consolation that we may give true love.
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