Sunday 30A, 2008 Print print this page             CLOSE THIS             Back to Homilies

Jesus talks about the greatest commandment of God: to love God
It could be seen as a selfish request, for God to say:
before you do anything else, love ME.  

God wants us to love him for our sake.
If an amateur chess player were invited by the world chess champion to play with him
or an ordinary tennis player were invited by the Wimbledon champion to play tennis with her
they would be silly to turn down the invitation.

Practicing with the very best would surely have a good effect on them. God says it is the same with loving and caring. God is the world champion, the very best, and to exchange loving and caring with him teaches us how to do them well. Loving, like everything else has to be learned from somebody and we are usually taught by our parents.

However, God is quoted in the Bible saying: my ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts;
my ways are so far above your ways as heavens are above earth.
In other words God’s loving is better than our parents loving so why not be ambitious and engage in a loving relationship with God and discover the ultimate in loving.

In the first reading, we heard God telling people that they should care about the stranger, the foreigner, the poor and the disadvantaged.
No doubt God cares also about those in residential homes, hospitals and mental homes, in prisons and borstal homes, in shelters and on the road.
He immediately gives us an example in loving and caring.
We should not just give to those who will repay us in some way, but to those also who wlll not repay us.
God will repay us for those.

Jesus once said that there are people who have eyes but cannot see,
ears but cannot hear.
It is easy to fall into this group, to stop seeing God asking to be loved, instead seeing only the undesirable, the insignificant and those who should blame themselves for their predicament.

Let us fight against being in this group, there is so much to see and hear in God’s love.

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