by Fr Joachim Robert
Deuteronomy 6:2-6
Psalm 17:2-4,47,51
Hebrews 7:23-28
Mark 12:28-34
Theme: Love God and Neighbour as Ourselves
Dear friends,
Our scripture Readings today invites us to take a deep look at listening, listening as an act of love.
In the First Reading, we see Moses saying to his people: Listen.
And in the Gospel, we see Jesus quoting from Moses and saying: Listen.
And this is what it is called the Shema Yahweh.
And as we look at this theme of listening, dear friends, listening to God and listening to one another, we come from an experience and this journey of listening to one another in our lives.
If you take a look at the church now, with this whole path of Synodality where so many people come together in this participative process of listening to one another, people all around the world coming to listen at life, different experiences, and we as a local church as well had our Diocesan Assemblies to listen to these experiences of our Diocese. And then at our local level, in our parish, we too had this exercise of listening to one another.
And as we began that journey last year, we came to this three elements of Inclusivity (I), Care (C) and Unity (U). And that came as a response of us listening to one another and the path that we ought to take as church. We see the Promised Land, we see where we want to go but we are not there yet.
In the same way of how in the First Reading, Moses said to his people:
Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength.
He says: Let these words I urge on you today be written in your heart.
And as we take this path forward, it Inclusivity, Care and Unity, we are called to allow the Holy Spirit, to bind us back in that love and to grow in Inclusivity, Care and Unity.
In taking the path forward, dear friends, we need to listen to one another. And yes, we may have challenges, obstacles of making us be distracted from what we are going, but if we as church has come to listen to one another and listen to God, in taking this path forward, that all of us come before God with humility in obedience, acknowledging that what has happened in the church, what has happened in our local church, is an invitation given to us by God to grow in ICU.
Because as we recognise that as an invitation by God, to love Him, our God, with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength. And as we take that response in saying ‘Yes’ to that path that we want to take, we need to do it with love.
Because every step that we take along the way, we must allow love to be present. Because it is easy to listen and ignore. It is easy to listen and not listen. But we are called to listen in love.
As we take a look at the Responsorial Psalm, it said ‘I love you Lord, my strength.‘ If we allow ourselves, dear friends, to be founded in faith, in this God who loves us, then our response in that love comes from our deep conviction of the love that we have for God.
And as we move on to the Gospel, one of the Scribes came up to Jesus and put this question to Him. And perhaps this question was directed at Him to test Jesus. But the response of Jesus goes back to what Deuteronomy mentioned. Jesus, listening to the Father, quotes what has been expressed in the First Reading and says:
This is the first. Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord and you must love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind, and with all your strength.
And Jesus adds on another element. And He says:
The second is this. You must love your neighbour as yourself.
And here, dear friends, Jesus invites us to make that response of love for Him in our relationship with one another. And as we love, we are indeed allowing the grace of God to be at work in our lives and to listen to what is happening around us.
And sometimes I am also culpable or I find myself in this situation sometimes. Sometimes you talk to someone, you listen and listen and listen but your mind is elsewhere. Your mind is so distracted that you are not present with them.
But as we listen as how is expressed in today’s scripture text, when we listen in love, with our whole presence, we indeed open our hearts to this capacity to love.
And when we are able to listen with all the troubles and situations that they have encountered, our hearts move with compassion and expands with love and we are allowed to respond in love moving forward.
So as we take a deep look at ourselves, dear friends, how have we listened? How have we listened to God? How have we listened to one another?
And as I look at the parish, and as we have the Altar Servers’ installation today, there are many, many of you who have listened to that voice and the prompting of God, in wanting to do the best you can in respond to that love that the Father, our God, has for you.
And that response of love comes from a deep conviction of wanting to serve, wanting to share, wanting to do what you can for the greater building of God’s kingdom. And I want to applaud you for that.
But sometimes when we listen, we sometimes can get distracted. As I mentioned earlier. And as we listen to one another and listen to the promptings of God in our hearts, in saying your ‘Yes‘ to Jesus, then you are indeed showing your love for God by saying ‘Yes‘.
Even though it may be demanding, even though it may be challenging, even though it may be difficult, you do everything that you do because of your love for God. Even though when you are faced with persecution and challenges and obstacles along the way.
So in this Eucharist, dear friends, let us pray. Let us pray for a heart that is able to listen in love, so that we are able to listen to love and that we are able to listen with one another with the conviction of the love that God has for us.
And let us declare before God as we listen in the First Reading as it says:
Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. You shall love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.
And let that word be a sign of your commitment and your love.
Just as the Scribe had very much of his own perception of things because he wanted to test Jesus, but that conversation and the dialogue with Jesus changed his heart, changed his view of Jesus and moved him away from his focus to be God-focused.
And as Jesus adds: To love your neighbour as yourself.
And when the Scribe was asked again, the Scribe mentions: Well spoken, Master. What you have said is true that He is one and there is no other. To love with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength and to love your neighbour as yourself, this is far more important than any holocaust or sacrifice.
And if we are able to recognise and respond in that love, then Jesus tells to each and every one of us. Jesus saying how wisely he had spoken, said:
You are not far from the kingdom of God.
Let us take, dear friends, this invitation to love God more in the way we express our love for one another.
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