Homily 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time - October 29, 2023

 Today's readings can be found here.

            What if I told you that to be a disciple of Jesus, all you had to do was two things?  That would be pretty simple, wouldn’t it?  In today’s Gospel, Jesus boils down all the commandments and teachings of Judaism into two commandments: love God with all your heart, strength, and mind.  Love your neighbor as yourself.  It can’t be that simple, can it?  Well, it is.  Love God and love your neighbor.

            Loving God should be easy, right?  Who doesn’t love God?  We wouldn’t be Christians or come to Mass every week if we didn’t love God.  But do we love God with all our heart, soul, and mind?  Is God first in our lives?  Unfortunately, there are many distractions in our lives that compete with God for our attention.  One of the things I’m passionate about is music.  I play guitar and have a modest guitar collection, most of which are in my den.  My mom came by one day and actually noticed them all.  She says to me “boy, you have a lot of guitars!”  I told that to my wife and she gave me that look.  You know, the one that says “your mother’s not lying!”  But it made me think, do I have a greater passion for God than I do music?  Is music a distraction from God’s call to minister to others?

            We all lead very busy lives.  We work, attend school, participate in activities and sports, try to find time for friends and family.  Parents of young or school age children can be especially busy.  These are all good things.  However, where does God fit into our busy lives?  Do we set aside time for God first and foremost, or do we fit God into the open slots in our schedules?

            Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves.  In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is asked “who is my neighbor”.  The young man that asked Jesus the question probably expected an answer like “any Jewish person”.  Our culture certainly tells us who our neighbor should be.  The news and social media are full of messages that our neighbors are only people like us.  Our neighbors come from the same “culture” as we do.  Or they dress and behave in a certain way.  Or they belong to the correct religious denomination or political party.  Anyone else is not our neighbor.  In contrast, Jesus tells us EVERYONE is our neighbor, ESPECIALLY those different from us.  Democrat or Republican, religiously progressive or conservative, straight or LGBTQ, Muslim or Jew, ALL of them are our neighbor.  Jesus calls us to love them all as we love ourselves.  To treat all those we interact with the respect and dignity of being made in the image and likeness of God.

            How can we better love God and our neighbor?  We can begin by setting aside time for God first.  This means more than attending Mass on a weekly basis.  Dedicating time for prayer is the best way to show our love for God.  Even if it’s ten or fifteen minutes a day, making a commitment to pray daily will allow us to know God better.  Praying the Rosary is a wonderful way to get to know God.  Meditating on Jesus’ life can help us to be more like Him.  Reading Scripture is another way to better know and love God.  An effective spiritual practice is to read a passage from the Bible and just sit quietly with it for a short time.  Listen for what the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit are trying to say to you.

            Prayer is also an excellent way to love your neighbor.  We should pray for those with whom we disagree.  Not only pray for them but ask God to shower His blessings on them.  If we want to love our neighbors as ourselves, we’ll want what’s best for them.  We’d want God to fill them with blessings.  We can also go out of our way to be kind and understanding to those different from us.  Perhaps we can give someone an encouraging word or gesture.  Or we can refrain from responding to that social media post that makes us want to shake our fist at the screen.

            Jesus tells us the Law and the prophets all depend on two commandments.  Being a disciple of Jesus requires two things.  Love God with all our might.  Love our neighbor, ALL our neighbors, as we would ourselves.  Are we willing to live out these two simple commandments?