BEING A CHRISTIAN MEANS TO LOVE
God is love (1John 4:8). This statement has a fundamental implication for all who adherents followers or devotees to God in the Christian religion. The fact is clear here being a Christian implies being a lovable person. This is what it means to love is to be a Christian.
Furthermore, it means Christianity is a religion of love and not just rules, laws, rites and rituals. Christianity is a spirituality of the consciousness of God and not a religion of laws or ritualistic worship. It is a spirituality of consciousness of God lived out in concrete relationships with others.
In essence, Christianity is the love of God and the loving treatment of others. This is the Summary of the laws and the prophets as well as the Ten Commandments.
OUR THEME
The readings of the Sunday invite us to reflect on the essence of following God. That is the love of God above everything else and others like ourselves. This proves that without love, Christianity is a purely rational human organization.
Love is reverence fear to obey and follow God a people to be his in all ways and manner. Love is the conscious decision with heart, soul and might.
Love is the sacrifice to give all up for the sake of God and others. Indeed, love is the lived action to give all up first for God and second for our brothers and sisters.
Love does not just make us Christians and lovable people. It makes us dwell in God and brings us closer to the Kingdom of God.
Actually, to love and being loved is what makes us truly human and divine. Therefore, we are challenged this Sunday to love God with our whole heart, mind, soul, mind, spirit and being. We are also called to love our brothers and sisters as ourselves.
FRIST READING: DEUTERONOMY 6:2-6
Moises reminded the people of Israel of the need to keep the commandments of God so that they might live a fruitful and prosperous life. A fulfilling life that extends blessings to their children and generations after them.
For Moises, a revenue fear of God to keep his laws, decrees and commandments is the proof of love for God. In other words, obedience to God through his given commandments means love for Him.
However, this love of God should be a conscious, deliberate decision or action from the heart and will of their being. The call is for Israel to love the Lord God with all your heart with no reservations.
PSALM 18
The responsorial of the Psalm of today is an open invitation to declare or profess our love for God. It states, I love you, Lord: my strength, rock, fortress and deliverer from all evil.
The Psalmist encourages us to centre our lives and existence on God. The creator and saviour who is our stronghold, shield and salvation. A saviour who keep us safe from evil ones, grant us victory and show us kindness all the time.
SECOND READING: HEBREWS 7:23-28
The author of the letter to the Hebrews continues his theological discourse to show us the differences between the priesthood of Christ and the Levitical priesthood. The nutshell of the priesthood of Christ is the love and peace offering he offers of himself as an eternal victim to God on our behalf.
Obviously, the priesthood of Christ is the surety of a new and better covenant in the relationship between man and God. It is a covenant based on the unfathomable love and perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
It is important to note that the Aaronic or Levitical priesthood and the old covenant are based on the laws= of justice and obedience.
While the new covenant is based on the love of God and the unselfish sacrifice of his Son. A sacrificial love that makes Christ lay down his life for us.
THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST
The old priests do not live for a long time. They lived serving God for a while, and they died and were replaced. On the contrary, the priesthood of Christ is forever.
It is a priesthood of holiness where mediation of Christ between God and man requires a sense of innocence, purity and goodness.
Jesus was never conscious of his power and authority as a means to oppress or hurt anyone. His empathetic character makes him do nothing but relates the loving-kindness of God to all men and women.
Jesus is the eternal high priest, and at the same time, the purest or stainless victim offers to God without blemish.
Jesus is different from sinners. This does not mean that he was not really or fully a man. It implies that he is the perfection of humanity at its highest and its best.
The priesthood of Christ makes him higher than the heavens because of his divine Godhead. Christ is a priest-God to whom the heavens and the earth are subject. Christ above the heavens is an expression that does not mean his exaltation or perfection above all.
In summary, the author of the book of Hebrews makes us understand the primordial quest of man. Human beings are always seeking to have an eternal dwelling place in the presence of God.
However, their sins are barriers to their access o God. As a result, man is restless until he rests in God. Jesus Christ, the eternal High Priest, is the only one who can make the sacrificial love and peace offering to bring men and women back to God.
THE GOSPEL: MARK 12:28-34
Jesus did give a simple, direct answer to the question of the Scribe in the gospel. The question that, which commandment is the first of all? This is an answer every male Jews should know since the Shema is a prayer they recite daily. Precisely, It is a prayer found in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 6:4–9, 11:13–21; Numbers 15:37–41).
The Shema is regarded by many Jews as the most essential prayer in Judaism. This is because it reminds them of the principle of the faith – there is only one God.
THE MENTALITY OF LAW AND NO LOVE IN JUDAISM
The law is the essence of Judaic religion before and during the time of Jesus. For the Jews, keeping the oral and written laws is the centrality of religion. Probably, it is a thing of focus among the adherents of many religions today. Where keeping and maintaining the law is viewed as paramount to human well-being.
When it comes to interpretation of the law, there was no love lost between the experts in the law, the Scribe and the Sadducees. There was this constant bone of contention between the Scribe and the Sadducees. Especially over the interpretations of the oral and written laws. The profession of the scribes was to interpret the law in all its many rules and regulations.
This is the context of clarification of the scribal question to Jesus. A respectful teacher who is not afraid to speak up his mind on any topic or matters of faith.
RELIGIOUS MENTALITY OF THE PRACTICE OF LAW VERSUS LOVE
There is no doubt, it is easy to let rituals and the laws take the place of love in religion. The negative observances of keeping the “ dos or don’t” of established religion are above 90% of religious practices.
However, not doing the don’t of the religious laws does not imply living an authentic true Christian life. Christianity is a spirituality of conscious doing the good than avoiding the bad. It is a religion of loving God and others than the laws and rituals.
LOVE IS ALL IN RELIGION
Hence, Christ invites the Scribe to put God first above everything else. That is loving with whole heart, will, mind, soul, spirit, and might. A conscious decision or action to put God first all and above self, others and things.
In addition, Jesus extends this call to love God with love for others as oneself.
The religious Scribe is a teacher or doctor of the Mosaic law. Hence, he knew the answer to his question but probably asked to test Jesus. He went on to affirm that love of God and others is above everything else in religion. It is more fundamental than any offerings and sacrifices.
Affirmatively, Christ equally confirmed the scribal articulation of what is most important in religious beliefs and practices. In the word others, Christ is saying to love God and others is to be closer to God and his Kingdom.
No one until Jesus put the two commandments together and made them one. Religion, in Christ understanding, is loving God and loving men. For him, the only way a man can prove that he loves God is by showing that he loves men. This is the fundamental of religion and nothing more.
LOVE OF GOD
The most important we should ask ourselves today is, how do we love God?
We must keep the commandments of God and offer daily prayers of thanksgiving, praise, contrition for our failings, and petition for our needs.
We also need to read and meditate on His word in the Holy Bible and participate actively in the Holy Mass and other liturgical functions.
If we are going to love God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength. Then we have to place His will ahead of ours. We must also learn to ask Him for help when we have to say no to some things that we might want to do.
Love of God makes us seek the will of God and make it paramount in our life.
LOVE OF BROTHERS AND SISTERS
From the Biblical teaching, our brothers and sisters immediate to us in the family, workplace, public places, and Church are our neighbours. How do we love our neighbour?
We love our neighbours by helping, supporting, encouraging, forgiving, and praying for them. We cannot practice discrimination of any form based on colour, race, gender, age, wealth, or social status.
If we are going to love our neighbour as we love ourselves, or as Jesus has loved us. It will cost us sacrifices and sufferings as it did Jesus!
Love of others invites us to be humble and seek forgiveness when we think we have done something wrong.
Love means we may have to sacrifice something we think we need to meet the needs of our brothers and sisters. We may have to spend time in prayer for other people and reach out to them, helping, encouraging, and supporting them in the name of the Lord.
FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS
What is your take on religion and religious practices today? Are you satisfied with the practice of the Christian faith today? Or are you fed up with religion, its practices and adherents?
What is your religious mentality? Loving God and caring for others through positive actions, words and thoughts? Or are you legalistic with the observances of the rules and regulations of ”donts”?
The fundamental fact of our reflection today is that without true love of God and others from the heart, will, might, spirit, and soul. Religion has no transformational value to change the life of a man. It is incapable of changing the animalistic nature of man. The religious practices or religious mentality without love makes a man a beast or gods. That acts with no impunity towards others in the name of God.
This is the principal cause of many people staying away from religious circles and embracing the promotional ideology of the death of God. Without love, religion is a tool of oppression, manipulations and abuses in the name of God.
OUR PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, you simplify religious beliefs and practices into the love of God and our brothers and sisters. Help us to understand that the Christian life and spirituality is not in long hours of worship. It is not also in the amount or number of donations one makes to churches. Nor it is in numbers of pious societies or groups one belongs to or in the articulated knowledge of the Bible, doctrines or dogmas of faith. It is in the challenge to love. Amen.
