30TH SUNDAY HOMILY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A
THEME: Worthy risks!
By: Rev Fr Oselumhense Anetor (Uromi Diocese)
Ex.22:20-26; Ps.18:2-4,47,51; I Thess.1:5-10; Matt.22:34-40
“Ride on man of God,” the young boy shouted. Like his colleagues, I could tell he was ‘hyped’. The message of love must have hit a home run. “Yes oh!” Another shouted, when I said that we can only love our brethren when we first love God… This happened years ago, when I was privileged to celebrate the Holy Mass inside a Prison. When I told the inmates that genuine love involves taking risks, their expressions showed the depth of their understanding. Some of these were men and women who had made mistakes; perhaps because they had loved too much, or because they were led astray by others.
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Jesus’s response to the Pharisees today is drawn from the שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל (Šəmaʿ Yīsrāʾēl), “Hear, O Israel” prayer which every Jew was expected to recite twice daily: ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind’ (cf. Deut 6,5). Jesus says this commandment is the greatest of all the commandments – an abbreviation of the 613 handed down by Moses. The second is drawn from it, for the love we show to others, is from the love we have for God himself.
Friends, if only we could continue loving genuinely. No one would need prisons – the jews in Jesus’s day would not need over six hundred laws to guide their actions. Love of God naturally leads to love of neighbour, and when we’re able to achieve these two, we would have paradise on earth. But since we’re still here, and we still have to deal with human imperfection, we must keep taking the risk of loving; past hurts and disappointments notwithstanding. After all, we have God for our example, and He it was who first took the great risk of love by giving us FREE WILL. So let love be unconditional, go love someone for who they are, especially those we think we’re better than.
Good morning dear. Happy Sunday!
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