1. Love Summit and Summary of All Commandments
2. Share God’s Love
Introduction
1. Love: Summit and Summary of all Commandments.
There is no greater love than that which disposes someone to give up one’s life for others. Jesus, the person who tells us this, proved by his own life and death that he meant what he said. He insists that love of God and love of people are one and inseparable. It is perhaps easy to love an unseen God but it is often very difficult for us to love people whose weakness we see, people who are cranky and rough and unreliable. But if we cannot love these people, we really do not love God. Jesus, who is God’s love alive, can give us his own endless, reliable love.
2. Share God’s Love
People who love one another deeply are disposed to sacrifice themselves for one another. Yet, what counts more than the sacrifice itself, is their mutual love; that is the root. Love is so great because, more than anything else, it is a gift from God who loved us first. If we become fully aware of this it will be easy to love people and to be at peace and in love with ourselves, for God loves us in all our frailty and fickleness and he keeps accepting us. Why, then, should we not accept also those around us? We ask the Lord in this Eucharist to let us feel his love and to enable us share it.
First Reading: Love the Lord with All Your Heart
God said as early as in the Old Testament: Listen, people of the covenant: The one Lord God loves you. Love God with all your heart.
1 Reading Deuteronomy 6:2-6
Moses spoke to the people, saying:
“Fear the LORD, your God,
and keep, throughout the days of your lives,
all his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you,
and thus have long life.
Hear then, Israel, and be careful to observe them,
that you may grow and prosper the more,
in keeping with the promise of the LORD, the God of your fathers,
to give you a land flowing with milk and honey.
“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!
Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God,
with all your heart,
and with all your soul,
and with all your strength.
Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today.”
Responsorial Psalm 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51
R. (2) I love you, Lord, my strength.
I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
The LORD lives! And blessed be my rock!
Extolled be God my savior.
You who gave great victories to your king
and showed kindness to your anointed.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
Second Reading: Christ, the Definitive High Priest
Christ is the definitive mediator and high priest, for he is the eternal Son of God and he sacrificed himself totally for us. He alone can bring real communion with God.
2 Reading Hebrews 7:23-28
Brothers and sisters:
The Levitical priests were many
because they were prevented by death from remaining in office,
but Jesus, because he remains forever,
has a priesthood that does not pass away.
Therefore, he is always able to save those who approach God through him,
since he lives forever to make intercession for them.
It was fitting that we should have such a high priest:
holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners,
higher than the heavens.
He has no need, as did the high priests,
to offer sacrifice day after day,
first for his own sins and then for those of the people;
he did that once for all when he offered himself.
For the law appoints men subject to weakness to be high priests,
but the word of the oath, which was taken after the law,
appoints a son,
who has been made perfect forever.
Alleluia John 14:23
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Whoever loves me will keep my word, says the Lord;
and my father will love him and we will come to him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: No Greater Than These Two
Listen, people of the new covenant: Love the Lord God with all that is in you; remember, that love includes everyone.
Gospel Mark 12:28b-34
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
“Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Jesus replied, “The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these.”
The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
‘He is One and there is no other than he.’
And ‘to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself’
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him,
“You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Commentary
I once set myself the task of listening to the words of modern pop songs (not an easy task). I wanted to find out what was meant by the word ‘love’ there. I found that it was more or less equivalent to the word ‘addiction’; you could replace it with the words ‘marijuana’ or ‘alcohol’ and the sense would remain unchanged. It is not so surprising, because in ordinary speech today, that one short word covers a multitude of different things: being addicted, craving and desiring, fancying and liking and admiring, needing and lacking, wishing and aspiring, showing preference for, being attracted to, being infatuated by, coveting and lusting and seducing, caring for, living for, being fond of, making sacrifices for…and countless other things. Poems, novels, theses, songs…there is no end to what is written on the subject of love. But what counts in the end is not how much we read or talk or even sing about it, but whether we are in fact “rooted and grounded in love” (Eph 3:18).
Blessing
Did we really need the reminder
that love is the heart of our faith,
as it is the heart of all human life?
Yes, if we are aware
that often we forget that love.
Perhaps the love of God is easier to keep in a way,
because God seems often far away.
But our neighbor is there,
with all his irritating blemishes and habits.
Let us not forget that he or she
is Christ meeting us on the road of life.
May God fill us with his love and bless us:
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Let us go with one another
the way of love of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.