Homily Thirty-first Sunday Year B To act out of love
Homily
Thirty-first Sunday Year B
Reading
1: When we talk about our relationship to God, what words best express that
reality? Fear and Love: two seemingly strong opposites. We began our reading
with the words, Fear the Lord and then we heard, Love the Lord. Scripture speaks of fear of the Lord as the beginning
of one’s relationship to God and love as the end of that relationship. But it
is not fear from our normal understanding but fear in sense of awe and
reverence before the Lord, who is God.
Because
of this awe due to the Lord, we are urged to keep the commands of the Lord out
of our love for God in response to his love for us.
Years
ago someone reflected on a person’s maturation throughout life and applied to
our spiritual journey, which depends on the reason and purpose of each of our
decisions. He said that our initial reason for acting is usually fear of
punishment. Then we act out of hope of a reward. Then we learn to do things out
of obligation. Then we make decisions based on wanting to be accepted by
others. Then we come to the point of making decisions out of our free choice.
Finally, he said that the ultimate and highest motivation for our decision
becomes love.
When
God revealed his Commands to his people with the expectation of them being
obeyed, the people did so for the most part out of fear of punishment, out of
hope of reward, out of obligation, etc. He desired them to do it out of love. “Therefore,
you shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, etc.”
Reading
2: The reading identifies three roles that Jesus, out of love for us, has taken
on. He is our Intercessor, our High Priest and our Savior. He chose to be each
simply out of love of the Father and out of love for us. Seated at the right
hand of the Father, he now intercedes for us as we journey to the Father. What
he intercedes for is us to be eternally with God in glory.
As
High Priest, he offered himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sake. In so
doing he became our Lord and Savior, reconciling us to the Father and to one
another. This is how much he has shown his immense love for us.
Gospel:
Jesus perfectly lived in his humanity the love of God. His response to the
Scribe was not just pious words but the reality he lived. Love of God primarily and subsequently love
of others were the hallmarks of Jesus’ life.
As such, Jesus has become the pattern for each of us as we seek to be
his disciples and live in love.
The
Scribe could be each of us. We come to Jesus seeking the truth, desiring to be
faithful to God. In asking his question the Scribe is a lawyer, who is aware of
the many additional commands of the Law that were imposed as an obligation upon
people. He was seeking simplification.
The
answer Jesus gave him was the very prayer called the Shema each covenanted Jew
recited several times a day. The Scribe acknowledges that Jesus spoke the
truth. In turn, Jesus affirms the Scribe with one difference. To know the right
answer is the first step. Now, it was important that the Scribe live in the
truth, not by saying the words only but by choosing to love God and others out
of love.
To
know the truth with understanding shows that we are not far from the Kingdom of
God. To live the truth with conviction and commitment is to be in the Kingdom
of God. To be not far from the Kingdom of God is different from being actually
in the Kingdom of God. It is the difference between eternally not being in God’s
presence and eternally being with the Lord. The difference is determined by the
reality of our love of God and others.
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