Love the Lord

Love the Lord
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Today's readings were about our first commandment pronounced by Moses again, before the people of Israel enter into the land God had promised them. It is tied together with the Gospel of Mark, chapter 12, where the scribe asks him which of the commandments is the greatest, and Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy:

Jesus replied, "The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these."

 What does this mean for us? We are to love our God with all our heart, all our soul, our mind and our strength? Does this mean we must love God above all the other persons and things in our lives? How does one do that? Are we willing to love God more than our spouse? or our children? or our parents? or our possessions?

The answer must be, YES!

But how? Through faithful prayer, of course. We must be willing to love our Lord, praying constantly, despite all the distractions that our life and family put in front of us. Jesus had said that he would cause conflict within our lives,

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man ‘against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household.’ (Mt.10:34-36)

because he knew that we are human and we all cannot follow this very simple command. Do you have a conflict in your family? Is there someone that resents your faith or fights against it? WE ALL DO! It can't be helped, it will happen today just as it happened two thousand years ago. Some will believe and some will not. The question is, will you let this conflict keep you from loving your God with all you heart, your soul, your mind and strength?

The verse continues, and here again is the ringing of the first commandment,

“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."
We must love Him above all else, for in doing so, we are given the Grace to love others as ourselves. This is the completion of the commands. Think about that for a minute.

If we love our God above ALL things on earth, he will grant us the GRACE to love "our neighbor" as ourselves.

I put those words in quotes because they are special. These are not literal and reserved to just "neighbor", that person that you wave to on the way into the garage when you arrive home at night. No, "neighbor" means EVERYONE. Your brother, sister, mom, dad, children, cousins, aunts, uncles, the homeless guy in the ally downtown, the pan handler on the median in the street, the Mormons that come knock at your door, (or run for President), the Muslim going to pray in the middle of the day are all our "neighbors". This is our biggest challenge, and our greatest gift if we can truly reach it.

 The second reading is from Hebrews 7 and (we assume from Paul and his associates here) he is trying to explain the new worship that Jesus instituted in relation to the one they grew up with and was handed down since Moses. (Vs. 22-23) 

The levitical priests were many because they were prevented, by death, from remaining in office, but Jesus, because he remains forever, has a priesthood that does not pass away.

After the golden calf incident in Exodus, the tribe of Levi, one of the sons of Jacob, were given exclusive rights to the priesthood and management of the Temple of God. These priests were the ones that prepared the sacrificial table, filled the lamps with oil, assisted with the sacrifices, helped do all the laborious things required to maintain and move the temple, (until the permanent one was built by Solomon) and deal with the everyday business of the needs of the people.

The sons of Aaron, within the Levi Tribe, had exclusive right as the High Priests. The High Priest, once designated, would stay High Priest until their death. Then a new High Priest would be selected from the appropriate line of Aaron, by casting lots. The High Priest was the one allowed behind the veil, into the Holy of Holies, the inner chamber where the Chair of Moses sits with the Tabernacle of God.

This tradition continued, generation after generation until the Roman Empire came and desecrated the temple and replaced the High Priest with one of their choosing, usually a Sadducee(see John 11:49), for one year terms. He is saying here that there is no longer a need for the Levitical priesthood (or the present false priests) to offer sacrifices for their sins and the people, because Jesus, who is both High Priest AND Sacrificial Lamb, will continue for eternity as the High Priest and his dying on the cross, was the last and only sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins.

 So often I read these verses and can imagine that they were written directly to us, in this world. We are to put no gods before him, he is our one and ONLY God. When these words were written, people had many household gods they would worship, ones they picked up from other peoples and their previous captors.

We have our little household gods. Some people worship their DVR and big screen TV, others their IPhone or tablet. Still others worship their clothing, the $300.00 shoes, or the expensive rims for their car. Yes, we have our household idols. We put these before our Lord, I dare say, some may even pray for money to buy them.

Can you give up your false gods? Can you give up television for 30 days? Can you fill that time with reading books of and about the Bible and prayer? Can you spend that time with your children playing games and reading stories and praying the Rosary? Hmmmm...


Blessings,

The Catholic Lady ©