30 Sunday A The First Commandment

Four minute homilies

The first Commandment

Chapter twenty two of Matthew’s Gospel is question time. We saw last week about the tribute to Caesar, then a question about the resurrection of the dead and today about the greatest commandment. It is a lawyer who asks to test him. He wanted to know how much Jesus knew about the law. Be careful with lawyers. Don’t forget Jesus is the one who made the law. The Pharisees loved to fulfill the law but had 613 commandments. There were endless arguments about their importance, because some of them were not easy to live by. Jesus gives us a simple answer: love God above everything and others as yourself.

It is a simple commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” It is the core of the Gospel in a nutshell, it’s a summary. It is very demanding, not easy to put it into practice. If you do it, you’ll become holy. We heard this many times and we would like to do it. But, is it possible? It is; God cannot ask us something we cannot fulfill. The saints have done it. We can do it, but do we want to do it? We are created to love God. It is the only way for us to be happy.

The Old Testament says that Moses was very much loved by God. He talked to Him as a man talks to his friend. After conversing with God he had to cover his face because it shone like a powerful light. The Israelites couldn’t look at his face. Moses wanted to see God’s face. But man cannot see the face of God and live, so God in his merciful love promised to place Moses in a cleft of a rock. “There I will station you while my glory passes by, and cover you with my right hand till I have gone past. So, when I take my hand away, then you shall follow me with your eyes, but my face you cannot see.” Thus God allowed Moses to see his back. We cannot imagine what he saw. We too want to see God. But our love for Him is not strong enough.

At the end of our lives we are going to be measured by our love of God. Jesus, our judge, is going to hold a scale with two plates: one with our sins, and on the other with our love for him. We already have our sins; the plate is full of them. We need to make sure our love is heavier. Look at big sinners who became great saints: Mary Magdalene or Saint Augustine. They eventually loved God above everything. They give us plenty of hope. We are small sinners, but we can become small saints. Don’t worry too much about your sins; make sure we keep growing in our love of God. There is a secret: we love him with his love; therefore ask Him for this gift.

How much do I love God? It depends of how much I am ready to do for him. Are we ready not to offend him? How do we grow in our love of God? In the same way we love people: doing things for them, trying not to offend them, thinking about them. Our mind goes to the people we love. We have five main languages of love. Acts of service: we need to serve God, doing things for him alone. Words of praise: we adore God mainly going to Mass. Quality time: we should spend more time with him in prayer. Physical touch: the best way to touch Him is to receive Him in Communion. Offering gifts: we should be generous with Him, giving Him whatever He is asking from us now.

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