31st SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME HOMILY – YEAR B 2024
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE IN ALL OF ITS WONDERFUL DIMENSIONS
Mk 12.28-34 Deut 6.2-6 Heb 7.23-28
Now we take a big leap in Mark’s Gospel, bypassing some significant events and teachings of Jesus, as, after last week’s account of blind Bartimaeus gaining his sight with insight, Jesus enters Jerusalem, curses the fig tree, for no apparent good reason, clears the Temple, has his authority challenged by the Temple police, presents the parable of the wicked tenants in the vineyard, who get their comeuppance in the end, approves of taxes for Caesar, suggesting the separation of Church and State is a very good thing! Then he has a go at the sad sack Sadducees who don’t believe in resurrection, this all before today’s culmination in his teaching about the fundamental law of love, starting with the one God whom he reveals in his own person, and linking this with neighbour, so connecting the vertical with the horizontal dimensions of integrating faith and life with love all the way.
What is this love? It’s difficult to describe love of God in tangible terms, but is a call to faith in a personal God of life and love, rather than a God to be feared, a God of doom and gloom, of vengeance and punishment, as had sometimes been the case in Old Testament thinking and expression. Jesus not only corrects this thinking, but adds the necessary link with love that is lived out in action, in terms of concern for others, here described as one’s neighbour, obviously not just meaning the person next door, or just the friend whom it’s easy to get on with! And one could infer that family is taken for granted, although we know that’s not always the case, as families can have their complications too.
I always add the necessity of having a certain love of self, as modern psychological understanding is that, to function effectively and happily, we all need a certain self-esteem and confidence in ourselves, in order to be of service to others. This is very much what the Gospel is all about, as Jesus moves around, proclaiming a Kingdom which is present in him and his ministry, but also to be extended by those who apply his teaching in practice, following his example.
As we now enter the month of All Souls, we started with Masses on All Saints Day, combining the celebration, as I consider we have our own personal ‘saints’, who have been part of our lives, never to be canonised, but whose influence and lived example have given us firm foundations in faith and life. For them we give thanks and remember them fondly with love too. In front of the altar in each church, we have pictorial reminders of those whose lives have been celebrated here, and friends beyond, and where we have commended them to the God of life and love of whom Jesus speaks.
Whilst it’s a sobering reminder of our mortality, and reawakens a sense of grief and loss, it is also a reminder of the preciousness of life and our need to live each day well, with all of the ups and downs, and unpredictables of life we face, well expressed in marriage vows ‘till death us do part’!
On Friday I heard a number of our Grade 6 young ladies at St Therese’s recite deep poetic reflections about life and the world around us, relating to the environment and our need to protect it, another about the importance of healthy relationships, and another about the evils of racism and the irrational prejudice against skin colour. Their insights, while an expression of common sense in some ways, were remarkable and powerful, and indicative that Christian values are being well incorporated into their Catholic education and lived out as they grow up.
Then I go back to 1967, with the number one song of the year from the Beatles, “All You Need is Love”, a very catchy tune with simple words, for all the world to hear at Expo 1967 in Montreal for the first ever live satellite video telecast. It was more than a romantic love song, but a call for the world to come together, with a willingness to accept and understand diversity and differences, without a need to focus on division and hatred, of which we still see so much today, some nearly 60 years on.
Jesus’ message is at the heart of it all, yet it so often gets lost with human interference and misinterpretation, with a focus more on differences than the common ground of our shared humanity.
As scripture scholar Raymond Brown sums up today’s Gospel: “The two commandments inculcated by Jesus, combining Deuteronomy 6.5 and Leviticus 19.18, share a stress on love that became what Christians would like to think of as the identifying characteristic of their religion – a characteristic, alas, too often lacking.” And ain’t that sadly so true?
On Friday, at the All Saints/All Souls Mass, attended by the whole of St Therese’s School, I used a simple story titled “If Kids Ruled the World” (by Leo and Diane Dillon) , as a reminder that the darker side of human nature can come in, through the distorted prism of misguided adults and misinformation, as a negative influence on the innocence of childhood. Jesus sees that himself, in reminding us that we should have the openness and simplicity of children, not in a simple-minded way, but in identifying true priorities in life, of love and service of others, not dominance, ruthlessness, and aggressive superiority. It has a message for us all, whatever stage of life we are at.
It’s a reminder that we can all do our bit to make the world a better place, by making good choices, trying to do the right thing and to help out where we can, in the spirit of the Be-attitudes of Jesus.
The love Jesus proclaims and lives is the opposite or antithesis of ‘Survival of the Fittest’! So let’s take it to heart and live it out ourselves in our own lives.
john hannon 3rd November 2024