02 November 2024 – 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) (Sunset Mass)

by Fr Fabian Dicom

I was told that my homilies are getting longer. So according to the number of pages here, I think it is shorter than last week’s.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, mind and strength and love your neighbour as yourself.

We have heard these words so many times that they become almost like a spiritual wallpaper, always there but barely noticed. Today I want to strip away, if I may be even ambitious, centuries of comfortable familiarity and expose the shocking radicalism of this command.

Consider this. When Jesus affirmed these words, from the First Reading in Deuteronomy and the second part comes from Leviticus 19:18: Do not seek revenge or bear or grudge against anyone among your people but love your neighbour as yourself, now He combined these two. When He did that, when he affirmed these words, He was essentially committing heresy in the eyes of many of the religious leaders during His time.

By elevating, raising, these two commands above all others and linking them inseparably, He was saying something revolutionary. They had never heard this before that loving God cannot and must not be separated from loving human beings. That all our elaborate religious systems, all our careful rule following, all our pious observations mean nothing, nothing at all without love. In a way, He was redefining or defining actually a practicing Catholic.

But here is where it gets uncomfortable. We domesticated this teaching. We turned it into a greeting card sentimentality: ‘Love God and love others‘ we say easily like the ‘Good Morning’ WhatsApp messages that you get. Or do we really understand how dangerous this teaching really is? Think about it.

In Deuteronomy, let me explain, this command comes in the context of complete devotion to one God, Yahweh, in the midst of a polytheistic world, a world where they worship many Gods, many idols, many beings. So when it comes there it is a radical rejection of a culture that could get you killed actually.

The command to love God with one’s heart, one’s soul, strength, was not merely a personal devotion. It was a bold statement against the idolatry of that time.

Now in the ancient context of the Book of Deuteronomy, monotheism or worshipping one God was not just unusual, it was dangerous. It was dangerous. To reject other gods in a polytheistic society meant rejecting the entire social, political and economic framework built around them. The people needed these systems to work and it dependent on their believe on the different idols. These idols, in a way real or not, kept the system going.

Now this commitment to that one God set Israelites apart and demanded a radical allegiance that could isolate or endanger them. So when Jesus reaffirms it, He is telling us that true love of God, that true love of God will invariably put us at odds at any systems, any ideology, any culture, any government that dehumanises or diminishes people made in the image of God.

In Genesis 1, it is very clear that you and I are created in the image and likeness of God. This is not warm, fussy love. This is love as rebellion against everything that destroys human dignity. This is love that got Jesus, crucified. That is the danger of this love.

The letter to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus is the perfect High Priest, who offers Himself once and for all. But what was that sacrifice about? It was the ultimate expression of this radical, of this dangerous love,
love that confronts systems of power,
love that sides with the marginalised,
love that refuses to accept barriers between God and humanity or even between human beings and themselves.

When the Scribe came to Jesus, he was not asking for a theoretical discussion or a philosophical one. He was asking about the heart of true religion. 

And Jesus gave him an answer that still has the power to overturn our comfortable religious practices today.

What would it mean to truly love God with everything we are? It would mean examining every aspect of our lives, our politics, be it in society or even in the church, to examine our economics, our finances, the way we live our lives, time to examine our relationships, our prejudices, our beliefs and asking if they all align with God’s love for humanity.

It would mean refusing to participate in systems that crush the human spirit. It would mean standing with the outcast, the refugees, the despised, not just in theory but in costly practical ways. And loving our neighbours as ourselves. 

Now this is not being nice or just turning to each other and wishing each other the sign of peace. This is about recognising that every human being carries the divine image. This is the difficult part.

We have heard this countless number of times. We know it and it is so difficult to get it into our system – that we all carry the divine image. The person next to me carries the divine image. The person out on the street carries the divine image. We don’t get it! 

It is about refusing to accept the divisions our world creates between worthy and unworthy people. It is about understanding that we cannot claim to love God while ignoring human suffering. 

The Scribe in Mark’s Gospel understood this. He got that this kind of love was worth more than all the religious rituals in the world. And Jesus told him you are not far from the kingdom of God. Not far but notice that understanding is not enough.

The kingdom belongs to those who actually live this dangerous love.

So here is our challenge today. A challenge for you and for me.
Can we recover the revolutionary nature of this teaching?
Can we let it confront our comfortable Christianity?
Can we let it expose the ways we have used religion to avoid the costly demands of love?

Because, my dear brothers and sisters. Here is the truth.

The command to love God and love neighbour is not just the greatest commandment. It is the most radical, most daring and life-changing teaching ever given. And until we understand, until we understand that, we are just playing at religion. Religion becomes a performance or a weekend hobby. A performance, a drama and we have our roles cut out for us. Our uniforms as well. And after the curtain falls, we go back. For me too.

The question is not whether we agree with this teaching. The question is whether we are ready to let it completely transform our lives, let it transform our world to become authentic lovers like Jesus, a people whose love is bold enough to cross boundaries, courageous enough to confront injustices, wise enough to see God’s image in every human face and committed to do something about it.

The kingdom of God is not far from us. It breaks into our world every time someone chooses to love with such fierce and intense devotion.

Today, that someone is you. I have put here ‘could be you‘ but no. That someone IS you. And we can, and we must.

And as we come to receive the Lord, when we say ‘Amen’, we are saying:
Let that ‘Amen’ be ‘I will do this. I will love the way You want me to love and You will give me the strength to do that.

Amen.

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