31st Sunday, Year B: Homily by Fr. Isaac Chima
Theme: Obedience to God by loving Him and our neighbour.
Readings: Deut. 6:2-6; Heb. 7:23-28; Mk 12:28b-34
Dear friends in Christ, one of
the challenges Christians face today is total obedience to God in the face of
the strong forces that promise to make their lives better if they compromise
their faith in God and their moral standard. The hardships in our world are
making the proposals of these strong forces highly appealing and difficult to
resist for many people. These powerful forces are increasing in number on a daily
basis and are getting the support and promotion of many governments in our
world. What should Christians do?
When the Israelites were making
their way through the desert towards the promised land, they encountered
numerous challenges such as hunger, sickness, poverty, and attacks from
powerful nations. One of the temptations they faced was to renounce their faith
in the living God and embrace the gods of the other nations for solutions to
their immediate problems in the desert. Of course, they heard how powerful those
gods were in for providing the needs of their own people and in protecting them
from harm. On many occasions, many Israelites bowed to those gods and,
consequently, received harsh punishments from God.
In today’s first reading, Moses
gathered the Israelites and told them that for them to survive and prosper, the
God of their fathers was the only option they had; that they must fear Him
alone and obey only His statutes and commandments. Such obedience and
reverential fear were to be made concrete by their love and worship of Him with
all their heart, soul, and might. He reminded them that only obedience, love,
and worship of this God would bring them and their children blessings and
protections in the land they were about to enter, rather than turning to the
gods of the nations around them.
Dear friends, the hardships we
face in this world often push us to think that renouncing our faith in Christ
and living our lives according to the standards of the world or bowing down to some
deities will solve our numerous problems. Those who promote anti-Christian ideas,
atheistic doctrines, and idolatrous practices often present them as a solution
to the challenges we face in this world. Some even claim that the Christian God
cannot help us.
Through this first reading, the Church
reminds us today that we are to worship only God Almighty, obey Him alone, and
love Him with all of our hearts, no matter the challenges we face. She also
reminds us, just as Moses did for his people, that it is only faith and worship
of the true God that will guarantee us true peace, protection, and prosperity
in everything we do. The things that the other gods promise and give are
ephemeral and will only lead people into more problems; other gods cannot give
us anything good.
With His answer to the scribe who
questioned Him about the greatest of all commandments, Jesus reiterated the position
of Moses that obeying, loving, and worshipping God Almighty with everything in
us and in everything we do is sacrosanct for us; it is the first and greatest
of all commandments and must be observed strictly. However, Jesus went on to
tell that scribe and all of us that our worship and love for God Almighty
cannot be complete and real if we don’t extend it to our fellow humans. In
fact, it is in loving our fellow humans that love and obedience to God are made
concrete, for “If anyone says, ‘I love God,‘ but
hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he
has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (I John 4: 20). God
created every human being in His own image and likeness, and God manifests
Himself in each of us. If we are blind to the manifestation of God in the faces
of our fellow humans, especially in the poor, the sick, the persecuted, the
abandoned, and the dying, then we do not know who God really is.
The amazing response of the
scribe after hearing how beautifully Jesus summarized the Ten Commandments gives us some
food for thought. He said, “to love your neighbor as yourself is
worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” This simply tells us that
all our duties to God and all our donations to the Church would be in vain in
God’s eyes if we fail to do the same for our neighbour. May God open our eyes
to see Him in our neighbour. Amen
Peace be with you.
Fr. Isaac C. Chima
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