by Fr Fabian Dicom
Hosea 14:2-10
Psalm 80:6,8-11,14,17
Mark 12:28-34
The Scribe in today’s Gospel asked a very technical question,
“Which is the first of all the Commandments?”
Now the Scribe, he is an expert in the Law, trained to measure, to categorise and obey. But Jesus does not just give him an answer. He opens a door,
“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, “You must love your neighbour as yourself.”
We have heard this countless number of times. But the Scribe agrees! It is very rare in the Gospel that the Scribes or the Pharisees agree with Jesus. Now here he agrees.
But Jesus adds something unexpected, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” Not far….but not yet there. Not there yet.
Why? Because love is not a rule to follow. To the Scribes, it was all rules and regulations. Love is an encounter.
It is easy to tell people. It is easy for me to tell you as well, “Love God, love your neighbour.“
You turn and ask me, “But how? With what?”
Can love be forced? Can love be commanded or willed into existence?
The truth is this: We cannot love unless we have been first loved. And this was important insight that was stressed over and over again during our retreat these 5 days.
Before we can love God and others, we must know, deeply, personally that we are loved. Otherwise faith becomes duty, prayer becomes an obligation and love becomes a performance.
And this is where many of us, you and I struggle. We know the words. We say the prayers. We follow the rules. We go for Mass every day but do we know truly, not in our heads but in our hearts? Do we know truly in our hearts that we are already deeply and unconditionally loved by God?
Really! Let us ask ourselves honestly. Do you know it?
This is what the Prophet Hosea reminds us in today’s First Reading. Israel had turned away, worshipped false gods and broken the covenant. Yet what does God do? What does he say?
The words from the First Reading, “I will heal their disloyalty. I will love them with all my heart.” Hosea 14:4. I will love them. Even before Israel repents, God has already chosen to love. His love is not given in response to our goodness but in the midst of our brokenness. We receive His love not only when we are very good and worthy and after we have finished our penitential service.
No! In our brokenness, He loves us. God’s love always comes first.
And as Saint John puts it in 1 John 4:19, “We love because God first loved us.“
And how do we know that we are first loved? It is not enough to hear it and we need to encounter it. And the encounter happens in very personal ways.
Perhaps in the gentle moments of mercy. Have you ever been loved even when you did not deserve it, humanly speaking? When someone forgave you unconditionally, when someone showed you kindness when you failed? That was God. He loved you first.
In the unexpected grace of life. Look back at your life. Was there a time when things could have fallen apart but something or someone held you together? That was God. He loved you first.
In the cry of the poor and the broken. The moment you see someone suffering and feel a stirring in your heart to do something, to feel that compassion? That is not just your kindness. That is God’s love moving us. He loved you first.
And at the Cross when Jesus stretched out His arms, it was not to tell us what to do. It was to show us that what had already been done. We were already loved before we could do anything to deserve it.
So this changes everything.
My dear brothers and sisters, Christianity is not about doing things to earn God’s love. It is about discovering that we are already loved and living from that place
It is about discovering that we are already loved and living from that place that we are loved.
When we know this, when we know this love (not just intellectually but in our bones), prayer is no longer an obligation. Prayer becomes a homecoming.
You know how nice to go back home? Just go back home to people who are waiting for you? Prayer becomes like that. Something we long to do, we are waiting to do. Prayer becomes that.
Faith is no longer about rules, all the rules that we have to follow. It is about relationships, both with God and with one another.
Loving others is no longer a burden but an overflow. We have always heard this term “The cup that overflows” because it overflows with the love that God has already loved us with.
This is why Jesus tells the Scribe “You are not far” because knowing that the Law (he is the Law keeper), the Law is not enough. It is not enough. He follows the Law. That is why He tells him, “You are not far, you are not there yet.“
We must taste and see that the Lord is good. And it happens, in the midst of all this, it happens when we totally abandon ourselves in prayer before God. When we totally abandon ourselves in prayer, not all the set prayers here, not even during Mass but that personal prayer with the Lord. When we abandon ourselves, only then we will be sensitive to God’s love which He is already loving us. We become sensitive to it.
So let me close with this prayer and I ask you to close your eyes. A short prayer that I have to close this homily.
Lord, let me know Your love, not just in my head but in my heart. Let me encounter you so that I may love you and others, not because I must but because I loved. Amen.
Click below to listen to homily and watch video
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