by Fr. Tommy Lane
We pray a number of times during the day. People have their favorite morning and evening prayers. Priests and religious have prescribed prayers that we pray five times a day, composed mostly of various passages from Scripture. One of the titles we give these prayers is the Liturgy of the Hours because they are our way of keeping the various hours of the day devoted to God.
When the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus in our Gospel today (Matt 22:34-40) by asking him which of all the hundreds of commandments, in what we call the Old Testament, was the greatest, Jesus answered with a verse from the book of Deuteronomy (Deut 6:5), “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” The section of the book of Deuteronomy with that verse became part of the daily morning and evening prayer of Jews. So, when Jesus answered the question about what the greatest commandment was, he was in effect using what already was or soon became part of the daily morning and evening prayer of Jewish people.
The Jewish morning and evening prayer continued with the next verses from the book of Deuteronomy where God asked them to write down that command to love him and carry it around with them (Deut 6:8). We have similar reminders to love God. We wear blessed medals or crucifixes or scapulars around our necks. Wearing a crucifix reminds us of the greatest love ever shown us, Jesus’ death for us. People wear medals to a saint or Our Lady asking them to intercede for us, asking them to pray for our safety and other needs. People wear a scapular showing their dedication to and love for Our Lady. As God asked the Jewish people to have reminders to love him above all, we also have reminders, and it is good to have them.
The Jewish morning and evening prayer continued with God asking the Jewish people to inscribe the verse about loving him above all else on their doorposts or doorframes (Deut 6:9). I think we have something similar with our Holy Water fonts just inside our doors to remind us to bless ourselves with holy water each time we leave the house to ask God to protect us. We also have sacred pictures hanging on our walls to remind us of God and Our Lady. It is good to have sacred pictures hanging on our walls. Why would we be embarrassed to hang sacred pictures on a wall of the kitchen or living room or bedroom? They are a sign of our love of God, of God’s love of us and remind us of Jesus’ words to love God above all, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Matt 22:37)
It is interesting to go back and read in the book of Deuteronomy God’s command to love him. God asked that we love him with all our heart, soul, and strength. Jesus added to it, “with all our mind.” We are also to love God with our mind, with what we think. That brings us to ask ourselves, “Are our thoughts always thoughts that love God? With what do we feed our minds? What we watch, listen to, and read affects our mind. So, to love God with our minds we want to watch, listen to, and read material that helps us love God. Do we fill our minds with material that shows we love God? When we make a decision, we are using our mind. In every decision we make, do we consider what would be the option that would most love God. In Deuteronomy, God asked to love him with all our heart, soul, and strength. Jesus added, “with all our mind.”
Loving God is natural when we think of how much God loves us. We do not think often enough of how much God loves us. God in his loving mercy has from time to time given us reminders to love him, and reminders of his love for us. I would like to recall again of one of those reminders in Jesus’ words to St. Margaret Mary about his Sacred Heart. Jesus said,
My Divine Heart is so on fire with love for all mankind
and Jesus spoke about the ingratitude he receives in return for his love of us:
I feel this [ingratitude] more than all that I suffered during my Passion. If only they would make me some return for my love, I should think but little of all I have done for them and would wish, were it possible, to suffer still more.
Loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind in some way for all of us means continuing to grow in closeness to God, continuing to grow in conversion away from what does not love God. For the people of Thessalonica in our second reading (1 Thes 1:5-10), loving God with all their heart, soul, and mind certainly involved a conversion. The city was part of the Roman Empire since 167 BC and full of all things Roman including temples to the Roman gods and goddesses and many other gods. It even had a temple for worship of Julius Caesar as a god (S.E. Johnson Paul the Apostle and His Cities p79). Paul wrote, “you broke with the worship of false gods when you were converted to God and became servants of the living and true God.” (1 Thes 1:9) Some people now feel frustrated with society not reflecting Christian values all around. Think of the first Christians in Thessalonica—they had the same experience. For them, loving God with all their heart, soul, and mind meant a completely new way of life, a way of life different to their neighbors in the same city. For some people now, loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind can mean leaving a certain way of life behind to begin a new life with God. It is not uncommon for this to happen as people grow older. They have already achieved all they want in life and now for the first time think about what really matters, loving God with all our heart, soul and mind.
The Pharisee asked Jesus what the greatest commandment is, and Jesus told him to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. But then Jesus added, without being asked, the second is “like it.” The second is like it, so it is also very important. Loving our neighbor as ourselves is as important as the first one about loving God. We cannot separate loving God from loving neighbor. They go together. How are we to love our neighbor? The way we would like to be treated is the way we are to love our neighbor. The first reading today gave examples, and an even better-known example is Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37) which is a beautiful teaching on love of neighbor.
Jesus said, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbor as yourself. (Matt 22:37-39)
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2020
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Thirtieth Sunday Year A
Loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and our neighbor as ourselves 2023
Loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and our neighbor as ourselves
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