Who is my Neighbor

 

     

    Homily: Sunday 30th Week in Ordinary Time – You shall love God & Neighbor
    1st Reading: Exodus 22: 20-26 – You shall molest or oppress and alien
    2nd Reading: 1Thess. 1: 5C-10- And you became imitators of us & the Lord
    Gospel: Matt 22: 34-40 – What is the Greatest Commandment

    The Apostle John was the only apostle who did not die as a martyr. He was exiled to the island of Patmos and died of old age. It was while he was in exile there that he wrote the fourth Gospel and the Book of Revelation. And there is a story which says “while he was already very old, his disciples would carry him to Church every Sunday. During the Mass, he would say to the people: “My dear children: love one another.” This was his one and the same message. After some time, one disciple asked him, “Master, why do you always say the same thing: Love one another?” St. John answered, “Because it is the command of the Lord. And if only this is followed, it will be enough.”
    
    Today’s readings speak of love for God and love of neighbor, which have been part of Jewish/Christian tradition since Mt. Sinai. But the understanding of what it means to love as required in Old Testament was amplified and clarified by Jesus. It was Jesus who came to teach, and to model what it means to love God and neighbor.

    The verses we heard today in our First reading from the Book of Exodus were taken from a huge number of laws concerning how the people were to conduct themselves within the Jewish community. These “laws” were meant to preserve a religious spirit and order among the people. All of these laws were seen as being given by God and keeping them was the way they showed “love” or reverence for God. These “laws covered such areas as theft, compensation of someone for injuries, immoral or immodest behavior and violent actions done to others.

    What we hear are verses about not molesting or mistreating foreigners, orphans and widows. If one were to harm one of these and they cried out to God, it says that God would mercilessly kill the abuser. We hear about the prohibition of demanding high or unreasonable interest or payback from someone to whom a loan is made. Yes, requiring some amount of interest is reasonable, but compassion was to be shown to those in need. If not the one who made the loan could expect God’s compassion to be withheld from them.

    All of these laws were quite specific and seemed to cover every eventuality. And the Jewish man or woman would have no problem knowing exactly what it means to love God, if they obeyed each one exactly. Now for some, that might be just what they would need to make life easy. Keeping all of these “laws” was how one showed love for God. But this begs the question, “does keeping the “law” mean it is love?” For the answer to this question, we need to turn to the words and example Jesus gave us.

    In the Gospel, Jesus is confronted once again by the Pharisees in an attempt to trap him into saying something which contradicts the faith and traditions as they understood them. So, they ask him which law or commandment is the greatest? And Jesus recites back to them, the very law that they claim to live by. He quotes Deuteronomy 6:5 called the Shema “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is Lord alone; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart." Every faithful Jew had these words memorized. But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He goes on to say, there is a 2nd commandment which is like it. He then quotes Leviticus 19:18, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” and He says that the whole law and the prophets depend or hang on these two commandments. And in responding to them in this way He links the two commandments together. He’s making them interdependent on each other. He is telling them that you can’t profess to love God, if you do not show love for your neighbor.

    Now the biblical or Jewish understanding of neighbor was defined by the expression, "the children of my people." Here, and pretty much throughout the Old Testament, the term neighbor implies more than just someone who lived next to you. It meant one related by the bond of nationality, a fellow countryman, another Jew. But Jesus means to expand this definition as well.

    In fact, in Luke’s Gospel account the Pharisees respond by asking then, “Who is my neighbor?” So, Jesus goes on to tell them the Parable of the Good Samaritan, a non-Jew, despised by Jews, who shows more compassion to a man beaten and left on the road than the other two Jewish characters in the story. But in Matthew’s Gospel, he leaves it more to us to not only think about who our neighbor is, but what constitutes loving that person. Regardless, Jesus told us in words and in actions what our mindset should be.

    So, who is my neighbor and what constitutes loving them? Well every single person who is living and breathing on this earth is my neighbor. And I am required to love them, not with the love of a husband or wife, mother or father, sister or brother, or even as a friend. To love my neighbor is to will their good and to care about their immortal souls.

    And this command may seem more challenging today than perhaps at any other time in history given what is going on in our country, our church, and in our world. For if we are to take Jesus at his word, then we are called to care about the souls of those who have caused harmed to us, to our family, to our country. We are called to care about the souls of those who profess to be Catholic, Christian, Jewish, or have no religious or faith-based affiliation at all but by their words and actions have strayed from what God and their faith calls them to be and to do. And sadly, we may also encounter those have turned their back on God altogether. But, if we profess to be disciples of Christ, then according to Christ all of these are our neighbor. So, if that is the case how are we to respond? What is our obligation to them? First, as I said, we must care about their immortal souls and we must pray for God to change their hearts. Next with a well-formed conscience rooted in scripture and the sacred tradition and teaching of the Church, we are obligated to call them to accountability and show them where they are in error. And just as when our children have gone off the right path and we must show them tough love, so it is with all of these others who are our neighbor.

    Today there is an evil which has infiltrated our country and our church. There are those in political leadership, Church leadership, in the media, and people of social and economic prominence who claim to be Catholic, Christian, Jewish, or profess to believe in God in some other manner but have lost their way. By their words and their actions, they have gone against the tenets of the faith or church of which they claim membership. Today we are enduring a diabolical wave of behavior by those in positions of power and influence which places the respect, the dignity, the protection of all human life on the same or even a lower level of priority as other social issues, like climate change, the economy, and health care reform to name a few. We see societal acceptance of all sorts of immoral behavior and sins against purity. We see intentional and aggressive attacks on traditional marriage and the family. We see Catholics, Christians, and Jews being persecuted in the media and at the hands of our political leadership. We hear a deafening silence and lack of outrage by our political leaders as Churches are desecrated and burned. We see inaction by those to whom we entrusted our safety and protection as we see people lose their lives to violence and our cities and neighborhoods being destroyed. We see a Church membership, both clergy and laity which appears to be divided in its understanding of the most basic teachings and traditions of our faith. And yet, the Gospels tell us that every one of these people is also our neighbor and that we should love them; not agree with them, not sit down and break bread with them, though Jesus would have, and we are not to give them a free pass. Rather we are to hold them and ourselves accountable for actions which contradict who and what the Lord calls us to be as baptized members of the body of Christ. So how do we do this? Well for those in political leadership, if we cannot sway them from the positions or courses they have taken, we are obligated to make our voices heard in the voting booth. For those in the Church and Church leadership who seem to advocate for positions which contradict the scriptures and Church teaching, we are obligated to reach out to them in writing or in person and express our confusion and/or dissatisfaction. For those in the media, or in other areas of influence, we have the right to express our discontent, and refuse to support the institutions or causes they represent. But again, we must do all of these things with a well-formed conscience, rooted in Scripture and the Sacred Tradition of our Church. We must know what our faith teaches and why it teaches it, before we can call others to accountability.

    But, first and foremost, we are obligated to pray for them; to pray that the Lord will change their hearts and we are obligated to pray for their eternal souls which are in immortal danger. And we must do so from a position of love, not anger, not hate, not despair because love cannot exist where anger and hate are present. If we do so in anger or with hate, we will fail in our efforts to help change their minds and hearts.

    This the challenge of loving our neighbor because St. John tells us in his 1st letter, “If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

    So, who is my neighbor? Everyone born & unborn, young, and old, rich or poor, sinner or saint. All are our neighbors.

     What does it mean to be a Disciple of Christ    

     Homily: 13^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

1^st Reading: 2 Kings 4: 8-11, 14-16 – Elisha gives hope to the barren woman of Shunem

2^nd Reading: Romans 6: 3-4, 8-11 – think of yourselves as dead to sin & living for God

Gospel: Matthew 10: 37-42 –whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me

“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but rather that God will make us good because He loves us.”  – C. S. Lewis

       Today’s readings challenge us to reflect yet again on what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and to place God above everything else in our life.  And the challenge to be a disciple of Christ is not simply one of the will where we choose to follow Christ and everything is fine from then on. Because whether we like it or not, we must accept the fact that there is an evil which seeks to separate us from God’s love and convince us that  that God’s love is conditional; that he will only love us if we are good.  And this is a misconception that Jesus came to dispel.  Jesus did not place conditions on His love for others.  It was up to each person to accept his invitation, his message, his love. This was the choice of anyone who wanted to be His disciple.  Now having said this, there are still misconceptions about what it means to be a disciple.

You see to be a disciple in the time of Jesus was not to be a groupie who just followed a popular person around because they wanted to be seen with him.  The Apostles and disciples of Jesus were not his posse.  In those days, to be a disciple of a teacher, rabbi, or holy man meant that the disciple must take on the mind and the heart of the one he/she followed and to live and act as their Master did.  So being a disciple of Christ meant accepting God’s love by taking on the mind and heart of  Jesus; that is the mind and heart of God. And as is with most things in life, this is easier said than done.

       The events of the last few weeks, beginning with the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis policeman, and the protests and violence that followed, caused me to reflect back to 1968.  I was 15 years old when Martin Luther King was assassinated, and I remember watching the rioting and looting of L.A., Washington D.C., and other cities on TV.  I also remember my father & I driving through Washington, DC while the protests and riots were still going on.  And the thing I remember feeling confused about was the actions of the rioters.  I remember being confused about how the rioters could think that looting, killing and destroying their neighborhood was a justifiable response to the death of a man who spent his life preaching that peace and non-violence was the only way of solving issues of injustice, racial or otherwise.  It didn’t make sense to me, that they could be true followers of this man.  How could they use the very means he spoke against to express their anger, fear, and disappointment.  Had they forgotten his words? Did they really not agree with what he stood for?  Had they given themselves over to feelings of despair?  It seems they had not taken on the mind and heart of the one they seemed to have so admired.

       And in reflecting on what is going on in our country right now, as well as the events of 52 years ago, I thought about the Apostles and disciples of Jesus who scattered when He was arrested and crucified.  They hid out in the upper room and waited.  They needed that time to reflect not just on the last 36 hours or so, but on what they had heard and seen over the last 3 years as they followed their Master. The words He had spoken, the things he had done.  They needed that time to remember all He had told them, and taught them.   But imagine what would have happened, if they had let their fear, their anger, their feelings of disappointment drive them to a different course of action? What if they had set aside or even forgotten the words and the teachings of their Lord, and took a different action? Imagine if Peter had sent word out to the zealots and other followers, that Jesus’ brutal torture and death would not go unanswered.  What if the followers of Jesus had risen up and responded to the Romans and maybe even the Jewish Sanhedrin with violence?   Not only would such actions been unwise not to mention dangerous, they would have invalidated everything Jesus had said and done, and it is very likely the Church would never have gotten off the ground.

       Jesus is telling us today that to be his follower; that is that to be worthy of Him, we must set ourselves apart from what the world would have us do.  All that Jesus said and modeled for us did not become invalid because he underwent suffering and death. He told his Apostles and disciples everything that would happen to him before it happened.  He knew the human heart, and He knew the weakness of the human spirit.  But despite knowing this, his message remained the same even to the point of forgiving those that tortured Him and put him to death.  Being a disciple of Jesus is not an easy road to walk.  And today we hear him use some pretty challenging language.  He’s telling us that to be his disciple means we have to buy in totally to his teaching.  We must love him, which means loving God over everything and everyone else including our parents, our wives, our siblings. And many have wrestled with this teaching because what they think or what they hear Jesus saying is not to love and honor our parents which goes directly against the 4^th commandment.  But that is not what He’s saying at all. In fact, there is a reason why the commandment to honor our Father and Mother is the 4^th commandment and not the 1^st.   You see the 1^st three commandments address how we are to love and reverence God. If we fail at these three, we will find it difficult to obey the other seven which teach us about how to relate to and love our parents, our neighbor, everyone.  What Jesus is telling us today is that the only way to truly love our families, our friends, and the stranger is to love God first.  And we are seeing the effect on our country when people don’t accept His words.  We see the effect on our county when God is banished from everywhere but our homes, and even there God is coming under attack.  The result is people don’t know how to love as God loves because they’ve lost touch with the one who loves them. No matter who we are or what our state in life is, we’re called to be loving in the same way that God loves us. Whether rich or poor, regardless of race or ethnic origin, we are all are called to love as God loves.

       In the first reading we hear of the woman of Shunem who showed hospitality and care to Elisha the prophet.  It says she was a woman of influence which can be interpreted as she was wealthy.  We also hear that she was an older woman who had not been able to give birth to a child.  And yet despite this void in her life she she does not curse or turn away from God.  Instead she recognizes Elisha as a holy man, one who is close to God, one who spoke for God, and she opens her home and her table to him whenever he came to town.  Despite her life experiences, she still chose to show reverence for God and for God’s messenger.  She did not turn away from God because life was unfair to her. 

       This is the choice we all have to make.  It is what St. Paul is trying to tell us in today’s 2^nd reading.  If we are to live out our baptismal call as disciples of Jesus, we must turn away from sin and turn toward God and live for Him.  It means he must be 1^st in our life.  Living as a disciple of Christ means to love as Christ loves and to follow His example of how to love others. Living as a disciple of Christ means taking His words and his life to heart and living our lives according to those words and example.  But this is not what the world would tell you.  It is counter-cultural to think that I should not respond with divisive language, anger, and violence when I have been wronged. But this is what being a disciple of Jesus requires. And if you think about it, in almost every age, to be a disciple of Jesus required going against the cultural norms.

       We’re living in very difficult times.  We are suffering the effects of failed leadership at all levels.  Those we entrusted with the responsibility to care for us have acted irresponsibly by their behavior.  By their divisive language and actions they have given license to speak and act in a divisive way to the people they’re supposed to serve..  By their words and actions they have validated the behavior we are seeing in our streets.  They have assigned people the right to do harm to their brothers and sisters.  We are in a cycle of anger and violence that must be broken and the only answer is to live out the Gospel of Jesus.  The only answer is for those who claim to be Christians, to act like Christians are supposed to act.  There are too many Christians and Catholics who are having a hard time with this.  The events in our country and in our world, have so consumed them, that they have lost their joy, they have lost their peace. And so they justify using divisive language and actions as a right response to injustice.  But in doing so they contribute to the lack of joy and peace in our country.  And the only way to get back that peace and joy is to make the Lord first in our lives and by loving God more than anything else.  Now this doesn’t mean we won’t experience rough times, but if we are truly trusting in God and seeking his guidance in all of these situations, He will give us the peace to know we are doing the right thing when we are doing it.

       But when we put God on a shelf; when we try to take matters into our own hands even in the name of justice; without God as the focus of our life, we will fail at whatever we do and we will lack the peace we so desire.

       The problems we face as a country will not begin to subside until all who claim to be Christian disciples of Christ, take on the mind and the heart of Jesus and respond as He would respond instead of how we think He should respond.