31^st Sunday in Ordinary Time

1. Sometimes, the priest is faced with a passage from the Gospel on which he scarcely needs to comment. Today is one of these occasions. In his words to us, Jesus surely teaches us things which are written in our hearts. He tells us that the first commandment is that you must love the Lord your God above all things. The second commandment is that you must love your neighbour as yourselves. Or, as he would say, in giving his disciples a new commandment, “Love one another as I have loved you.”

2. If I say anything at all here, I think it is worth noting that these commandments are not expressed in a general or impersonal way. They are addressed to each one of us personally: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart”, and “You must love your neighbour as yourself”. As always, the Word of God is addressed to each one of us personally. These commandments are part of what is called the Covenant. They are directed to people with whom God has established a relationship. The big thing here is that God has loved us first. God told the chosen people: “I am the Lord your God…I have brought you out of slavery…..You shall have no other gods before me.” So the commandment “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart” is really not the beginning of something, but a response to something, a response to God’s love.

3. In another part of the New Testament, the First Letter of John, we hear something similar in its teaching about love. The author writes: “This is the love I mean, not our love for God, but God’s love for us when he sent his Son to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away. My dear people, since God has loved us so much, we too should love one another.” So the moral life, what we do as Christian people, is a response to God’s love for us. If we don’t sense God’s love for us, then we will not love God above all things and we will really struggle to love our neighbour.

4. We are here because we sense God’s love for us. We recognise that he gave us life, that he calls each one of by name, and that, in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, he has offered us forgiveness and friendship and the pledge of eternal life. We recognise this love of God which has touched our lives, and, in response, we love Him in return with all our hearts and love our neighbours as ourselves, and as Jesus has loved us.

5. We are faced, however, with the situation in our world where many people do not recognise God and do not sense they are loved by him. For that reason, they cannot make a response to God’s love either in respect of God or even in respect of their neighbour. This is where our response of love is all the more important. Our response of love is not just for ourselves, but to bring to others the love of God for them.

St. James’ Paisley,

5^th November 2006