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.
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Reflection:
The story is told
about a pastor who was preaching about love for God and neighbor. Across his
church was a man who would always create noise whenever he was preaching. And
he would naturally be distracted by that man. One morning the pastor went to
that man and angrily told him that he is disturbing him. The man said to the
pastor: “Why are you angry with me, don’t you know that I am just testing you
if you live what you are preaching?”
Do you love God?
Surely you do. How about your neighbor? It’s easy to say I love God but
to live this love of God is a different story altogether. Because if we would
live this love of God. Then, we would be willing to love even our unlovable
neighbor.
But who is this
neighbor? He/she could be anyone that you know who’ve hurt you. He/she could be
your spouse, your relative, your friend or your literal house neighbor. The
supreme test of our love for God is when we are willing to love even our
unlovable neighbor.
If we say we love God
yet we hold deep resentment toward somebody who has hurt us badly. Then, our
love of God is simply superficial. It becomes authentic when we hold no
bitterness toward those who’ve hurt us no matter how deep the hurt they’ve
inflicted upon us.
What is the use of
going to church, of giving offerings and doing other forms of sacrifices as an
expression of our faith and love for God. Yet, we hold a grudge against
someone? Thus, we are still wanting in our profession of our love for God. True
love for God is when we are capable of forgetting and forgiving the hurt that had
been inflicted upon us.
What if the hurt is
consistently being made afresh, there is no sign of remorse from that neighbor.
Perhaps it’s about time to completely walk away from that neighbor. We walk
away not because we don’t love that neighbor and God. We walk away because that
is the most ethical act to do.
In the gospel, Jesus
talks about the two greatest commandments: Love for God and neighbor. These two
expressions of love should always be together and it should not be separated.
Does this mean that there’s always a happy ending when we love God and
neighbor?
Not always, there are
also sad endings when we express and live our love for God and neighbor.
However, these sad endings are temporary eventually there would be a happy
ending. Why? Because we never give up on loving our God and our neighbor. –
Marino J. Dasmarinas