Shikrot Mpwi - Sunday Synopsis with Fr. Justine J. Dyikuk
31st Sunday of
the Year, B – November 4, 2018.
Readings: Deut. 6:2-6;
Ps 17:2-4,47,51; Hebrews
7:23-28;
Gospel – Mark 12:28-34.
Theme - Unconditional Love:
How Far Are You From The Kingdom?
Introduction
Beloved in Christ,
today our liturgy reminds us that the Ten
Commandments of God (Exodus 20:1-17) are summarised into the love of God and
the love of neighbour (Mark 12:30-31).
This is why our reflection titled “Unconditional Love: How Far Are You From The Kingdom?” calls us to measure our love for God on the love of
neighbour. Before we relish our readings, we would take a look at the summary
of the readings, the various dimensions and types of love, an appropriate
narrative of love and the requisite pastoral lessons.
Background
& Summary of the Readings
Our first reading (Deuteronomy 6:2-6)
reveals the assurances of Moses to the people of Israel that if they fear the
Lord and serve him all their days by keeping his laws and commandments, they
and their children as well as grandchildren would live long. It adds that if
they keep this covenantal patrimony which they received from their fathers, God
would give them a land flowing with “milk and honey.” It concludes by calling them
thus: “Listen, Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord. You shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. Let
these words I urge on you today be written on your heart.”
The second reading (Hebrews
7:23-28) discloses the eternal nature of Christ’s priesthood. It reveals that
he is interceding for us perpetually before the father. It assures that his own
kind of priesthood differs from that of high priests who offer daily sacrifices.
On the contrary, he offered one single sacrifice for sins and is above human
weakness.
In the Gospel (Mark 12:28-34), Jesus gives a summary
of the law and the prophets as love of God and neighbour. It reveals how Jesus
lauds the scribe who said the love of God and nieghbour is the supreme law.
Christ tells him: “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” What then are the
demands of this love we are talking about?
Dimensions
of Love
The two dimensions of love
are, vertical and horizontal. In the gospel of Matthew (Matt. 22:34-40), Jesus
says: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The
second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself.” He further
stressed: “On these two commandments hang the whole law and the Prophets
also.” As it relates to the gospel of
today, this teaching has vertical and horizontal dimensions:
a). Vertical Dimension of Love: Loving God with all our hearts, souls and minds translates into the vertical
dimension of love. This also relates to agape which we shall explain. It is
crucial for us to understand that it is in him that we live and move and have
our being (Acts 17:28). Therefore, in the words of St. Paul, as individuals and
members of the Church, we must not let anything like death, life, angels,
rulers, things present, things to come, powers, height, depth and anything else
in creation, to come between us and the love of God in Christ Jesus (Rom
8:35-39).
b).
Horizontal Dimension of Love: Philial
love fulfills the demands of the
love of nieghbour which our liturgy challenges us to embrace. For instance, the
popular parable of the Good Samaritan tells us who our nieghbour is – Rather
than get stuck on the lethal radar of erotic love, we are challenged to
demonstrate real and active love to our family, friends as well as our foes. In
Amoris Laetitia or The Joy of Love - Pope Francis’s
Apostolic Exhortation on the beauty, joy and love of marriage and the family,
the Holy Father reminds us that God is throwing an open invitation to us to develop
an unwavering capacity for love because our world is hungry for love, joy,
peace, justice, spirituality, sincerity, fidelity and moral upliftment. This
leads us to the types of love.
Types of
Love
a). Philia: Philia
is the love which exists between parents and their children, children with
their parents and kids with their siblings. This stems from the natural bond
that exists in a family. As a family word, philia is the brotherly or sisterly
affection which unites us with one another in a unique way (Rom 12:10).
b). Eros:
Erotic
love stems from concupiscence of the
flesh which St. Thomas Aquinas identifies in his Summa Theologica as one of the causes of sin. Aquinas makes the
point that we are induced into sin through inordinate desires - The lust of the
flesh includes sexual permissiveness and vain desires. The devil excites within us the concupiscence of the
flesh so as to commit sin. The “lust of the flesh,” appears in two more
significant passages of Scripture - the temptation of Eve in the Garden (Gen
3:1-6) and the temptation of Christ in the wilderness (Matthew 4:8-10). St. Paul
warns us to “cast off the works of darkness” (Rom 13:12) and make no provision
for the desires of the flesh. Paul’s warning that we should shun concupiscence
of the flesh is timely.
