T 31 [B]: Dt 6:2-6; Heb 7:23-28; Mk 12: 28b-34

The central message of today's readings is the most fundamental principle of all religions. It is to love God in loving others and to love others in loving God.

When Jesus quoted the statement, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might and with all your strength," every devout Jew would agree with him. Loving God with our whole heart is the key to everything in life; because our relationship with God affects everything and everyone in our life.  St. Augustine wrote: "Love God – and do what you like."

The second most important commandment is "You should love your neighbour as yourself." Hillel was a famous Jewish religious leader. Once he was asked by someone to instruct him in the whole law while he stood on one leg. Hillel's answer was, "What you hate for yourself, do not do to your neighbour. This is the whole law, the rest is commentary.

Love your neighbor as you love yourself: The command to love our neighbor as we love ourselves is a very demanding one. It was very hard for the Jews of Jesus’ time because only a fellow-Jew, obeying the Mosaic Law, was considered their neighbor. That is why, immediately after defining this important commandment, Jesus tells them the parable of the Good Samaritan, as reported in Luke’s Gospel. He wanted to teach His listeners that everyone in need is their neighbor.

If I am going to love my neighbor as I love myself, it will cost me as well! I may have to seek forgiveness when I think I have done no wrong. I may have to sacrifice something I think I need to meet a brother’s need. I may have to give up time to help someone. I may have to spend time in prayer for people, go to them, and reach out to them in the name of the   Lord.

Paul says in Romans: God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.(Rom. 5:8). While we were loathsome He loved us. Augustine said to God: By loving the unlovable, You made me lovable.

G. K. Chesterton once said that the really great lesson of the story of “Beauty and the Beast” is that a thing must be loved before it is loveable. A person must be loved before that person can be loveable. Some of the most unlovely people got that way because they thought that nobody loved them. The fact of the matter is that unless and until we feel ourselves loved, we cannot love. That’s not only a principle of theology but of psychology and sociology as well. Just as abused children grow up to abuse their children, loved children grow up to love their children. Loved persons are able to love. Unloved persons are not. Christianity says something startling. It says that God loves and accepts us “just as we are.” Therefore we can love and accept ourselves and in so doing, love and accept others.

Loving somebody who is attractive and wise and rich is no big credit. We naturaly fall in love with such people. But to love someone without any of these, is hard and then we are following the command of the Lord.

A rabbi was asked, "Which act of charity is higher--giving out of obligation or giving from the heart?"

All in the class were inclined to respond that giving from the heart had something more in it, but they knew the rabbi was going to say just the opposite, because in spiritual teaching nothing is logical. They were not disappointed.

"Giving from the heart is a wonderful thing," the rabbi said, "It is a very high act and should never be demeaned. But there is something much more important that happens when somebody gives charity out of obligation.

When somebody gives from the heart, there is a clear sense of oneself doing something; in other words, heartfelt charity always involves ego gratification.

"However, when we give out of obligation, when we give at a moment that every part of us is yelling NO! because of one reason or another--perhaps the beneficiary is disgusting, or it is too much money, or any of thousands of reasons we use to avoid giving charity--then we are confronting our own egos, and giving nonetheless. Why? Because we are supposed to. And what this means is that it is not us doing the giving, rather we are vehicles through which God gives... Therefore loving out of obligation because it is a command of Jesus receives more merit than when we love somebody out of innate loving urge.

We should ask ourselves these questions on a daily basis: Is my love for God all that it should be? Do I pray to Him as I should? Am I in His Word as I should be? Are there people or things that have crept in and taken over first place in my life? Is Jesus somewhere down the line after some person, some thing, or even myself? What about my love for others? Is it all it could be? How loving am I to the members of my family, to my neighbors, to the members of my parish community? The answer to all these questions will help us to measure the degree of our love of God.

During this Eucharistic celebration, let us ask the Lord that we might truly love him, with all of our heart. May the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, who sacrificed herself fully, for love of God, by offering up her Son dying on the Cross, grant us her help and her protection throughout our life!