Homily – 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time

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Homily – 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking.
It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” -Albert Einstein

I read this with interest in our Justice and Peace newsletter. A similar expression from Einstein is this: “You cannot solve a problem using the same thinking you used to create the problem.”

Today, as we once more reflect on this Gospel, it’s good to come with Einstein’s wisdom.
We are all in agreement, I’m sure: to love our neighbour and love God are connected.
We can’t love one with the loving the other. But, who is my neighbour?

And how many ways are there of helping my neighbour? This is where we need to change our thinking. Even the Good Samaritan story is not sufficient for us. One reason the Einstein quote challenged me, was the recent media reports urging Climate Change action.

In simple terms, in connection with the Gospel, we need to love our neighbour by looking after the earth where we live. It’s not just about sharing food and money.

Those men and women who labour quietly in the background creating new “green” energy systems are truly loving their neighbour, even if they never give $1 to help anyone directly.

The First Reading gave us a fantastic reminder of opportunity and challenge:
“Listen then, Israel, keep and observe what will make you prosper and give you great increase.” We all want to be prosperous & have increase.

The first change in our thinking, I humbly suggest, is: it’s not someone else’s job, it’s my job.
For example, if I own a restaurant, and I use wood cookers: have I installed the efficient cooking machines that reduce heat loss, and thereby reduce the quantity of wood I consume?

Spending money on efficient equipment will reduce operating expenses = increased profits.
At the same time, we reduce forest destruction, and greenhouse gasses.

Can we walk short distances instead of “driving the car”? We will reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gases. Then we prosper as we spend less on fuel and medicine:
because our health also improves through exercise.

Love isn’t just immediate action. It’s making decisions for the good of: self, others & the earth.
Loving my neighbour means acting responsibly with our body.
Caring for our health helps our family members in the future.

If we change our way of thinking, we will see that loving our neighbour has more than one dimension. How often do we hear people saying: “it’s my body, I can do what I like with it!”

But what happens when that person gets sick? Who will have to care for them?
1. Parents, brothers, sisters, and friends will have to sacrifice time and money.
2. The citizens of the country will have to share more hospital & medicine costs.

Are those actions a sign of love or selfishness?

So, as much as immediate actions of sharing food and money to help the poor are important, what is EQUALLY if not more important is this:

Love your body: eat healthy, exercise and sleep well.
Love the earth: don’t throw rubbish; use less resources; be efficient not wasteful.
Support those building green energy: it will protect the earth longer,
and it will reduce costs in the future.

If you are healthy and happy, you will help more people over the long term.
If you respect the earth, you will enjoy a more beautiful & healthy environment forever.

Let’s Love God and our Neighbour, not by using the old way of thinking.
STOP, be quiet, reflect… then act.

THE END — READINGS & GOSPEL REFLECTION NOTES ARE AT THE END OF THIS DOCUMENT.

THE END + Related Illustrations

The Weakest in the Center

The most honored parts of the body are not the head or the hands, which lead and control. The most important parts are the least presentable parts. That’s the mystery of the Church. As a people called out of oppression to freedom, we must recognize that it is the weakest among us – the elderly, the small children, the handicapped, the mentally ill, the hungry and sick – who form the real center.

Paul says, “It is the parts of the body which we consider least dignified, that we surround with the greatest dignity” (1 Corinthians 12:23).

The Church as the people of God can truly embody the living Christ among us only when the poor remain its most treasured part. Care for the poor, therefore, is much more than Christian charity. It is the essence of being the body of Christ.

– Henri J. M. Nouwen

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The Constitution of Kenya (Art 19/3) demands that we promote human dignity in these words, ‘the purpose of recognizing and protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms is to preserve the dignity of individuals and communities and to promote social justice and the realization of the potential of all human beings.’

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Introduction

Theme: humility, love of God, our self, and our neighbour

You created us, God, in your image and likeness. We are forever bound to you; you are the very reason we exist. Without your friendship and perfect love we cannot reveal your glory to those around us. Give us wisdom to know your will and the courage to carry it out. Amen.

Starting comments

In the 1^ST Reading,

The Book of Deut. records events during the forty days in the plains of Moab, after the Israelites finished wandering in the desert, and before they crossed the Jordan River.

In the 2^ND Reading,

The letter to the Hebrews addresses a Christian community about their weariness with the demands of the Christian life and a growing indifference to their Baptismal calling.

In the GOSPEL today…

PRAYER OF THE FAITHFUL

Start: Conscious of Jesus Christ’s humanity, and his understanding of our struggles,
we confidently ask God for the needs of our community and ourselves…

End: We make our prayers through this same Christ Our Lord.

FINAL BLESSING

JOKE — Storms and Floods

A motorist is making his way down a flooded road after a night of torrential rain. Suddenly he sees a man’s head sticking out of a large puddle. He stops his car and asks the man if he needs a lift.

‘No thanks,’ says the man. ‘I’m on my bike.’

Harry had a fantastic country house with two wings. Sadly it flew off the last time they had a big storm.

Gospel Notes—31^st Sun OT—B—3-Nov-2018. The Daily Study Bible (W Barclay ’75)

LOVE FOR GOD AND LOVE FOR MEN – Mark 12:28-34

No love was lost between the expert in the law and the Sadducees. The profession of the scribes was to interpret the law in all its many rules and regulations. Their trade was to know and to apply the oral law, while, as we have seen, the Sadducee did not accept the oral law at all. The expert in the law would no doubt be well satisfied with the discomfiture of the Sadducees.

This scribe came to Jesus with a question which was often a matter of debate in the rabbinic schools. In Judaism there was a kind of double tendency. There was the tendency to expand the law limitlessly into hundreds and thousands of rules and regulations. But there was also the tendency to try to gather up the law into one sentence, one general statement which would be a compendium of its whole message. Hillel was once asked by a proselyte to instruct him in the whole law while he stood on one leg. Hillel’s answer was, “What thou hatest for thyself, do not to thy neighbour. This is the whole law, the rest is commentary. Go and learn.”

Sammlai had taught that Moses received 613 precepts on Mount Sinai, 365 according to the days of the sun year, and 248 according to the generations of men. David reduced the 613 to 11 in Ps. 15: Lord, who shall sojourn in thy tent? Who shall dwell on thy holy hill? 1. He who walks blamelessly. 2. And does what is right. 3. And speaks truth from his heart. 4. Who does not slander with his tongue. 5. And does no evil to his friend. 6. Nor takes up a reproach against his neighbour. 7. In whose eyes a reprobate is despised. 8. But who honours those who fear the Lord. 9. Who swears to his own heart and does not change. 10. Who does not put out his money at interest. 11. And does not take a bribe against the innocent.

Isaiah reduced them to 6 (Isa.33:15): 1. He who walks righteously. 2. And speaks uprightly. 3. Who despises the gain of oppressions. 4. Who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe. 5. Who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed. 6. And shuts his eyes from looking upon evil. He shall dwell on high.

Micah reduced the 6 to 3 (Mic.6:8): He hath showed thee, man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of thee. 1. To do justice. 2. To love kindness. 3. To walk humbly with your God.

Once again Isaiah brought the 3 down to 2 (Isa.56:1): 1. Keep justice. 2. Do righteousness.

Finally, Habakkuk reduced them all to one (Hab.2:4): The righteous shall live by his faith.

It can be seen that rabbinic ingenuity did try to contract as well as to expand the law. There were really two schools of thought. There were those who believed that there were lighter and weightier matters of the law, that there were great principles which were all-important to grasp. But there were others who held that every smallest principle was equally binding and that to try to distinguish between their relative importance was highly dangerous.

(i) “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” That single sentence is the real creed of Judaism (Deut.6:4). It had 3 uses. It is called the Shema. the imperative of the Hebrew verb to hear. (a) It was the sentence with which the service of the synagogue always begins. (b) The 3 passages of the Shema were contained in the phylacteries (Mat 23:5), little leather boxes which the devout Jew wore on his forehead and on his wrist when he was at prayer. See Deut 6:8. (c) The Shema was contained in a little cylindrical box called the Mezuzah which is affixed to the door of every Jewish house and the door of every room within it, to remind the Jew of God when going in & out.

When Jesus quoted this sentence every devout Jew would agree with him.

(ii) “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” That is a quotation from Lev 19:18. Jesus did one thing with it. In its original context it has to do with a man’s fellow Jew. It would not have included the Gentile, whom it was quite permissible to hate. But Jesus quoted it without qualification and without limiting boundaries. He took an old law and gave it new meaning.

The new thing that Jesus did was to put these two commandments together. No rabbi had ever done that before. There is only one suggestion of connection previously. Around 100 BC there was composed a series of tractates called The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, in which an unknown writer put into the mouths of the patriarchs some very fine teaching. In The Testament of Issachar (5:2) we read: “Love the Lord and love your neighbour, Have compassion on the poor and weak.” In the same testament (7:6) we read: “I loved the Lord, Likewise also every man with my whole heart.” In The Testament of Dan (5:3) we read: “Love the Lord through all your life, and one another with a true heart”

But it is always easy to let ritual take the place of love. It is always easy to let worship become a matter of the Church building instead of a matter of the whole life. The priest and the Levite could pass by the wounded traveller because they were eager to get on with the ritual of the temple. This scribe had risen beyond his contemporaries and that is why he found himself in sympathy with Jesus.

Gospel Action

Pray for and share your faith with someone this week who you would not normally talk to. Ask them about their life… and where their faith life is taking them.

Questions

How is humility connected to living out the commandment which Jesus gives?
Why is there power in being humble? Can anyone take it from you? Can you use this power for anything but good?
How are humbleness and honesty related?
Other than telling God, how would God know of your love for him?
Who is your neighbour? Can you decide who qualifies as your neighbour?
How is love a transforming power?
What does it mean to love yourself? Is this kind of love narcissistic?
How can love for yourself be a humbling experience? Why is love of self necessary, to truly love your neighbour?
How is your love for yourself and for your neighbour a fitting gift to God?

SUICIDE AND THE SOUL — Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI (8-10-2018) www.ronrolheiser.com

More than fifty years ago, James Hillman wrote a book entitled, Suicide and the Soul. The book was intended for therapists and he knew it wouldn’t receive an easy reception there or elsewhere. There were reasons. He frankly admitted that some of the things he proposed in the book would “go against all common sense, all medical practice, and rationality itself.” But, as the title makes clear, he was speaking about suicide and in trying to understand suicide, isn’t that exactly the case? Doesn’t it go against all common sense, all medical practice, and rationality itself? And that’s his point.

In some cases, suicide can be the result of a biochemical imbalance or some genetic predisposition that militates against life. That’s unfortunate and tragic, but it’s understandable enough. That kind of sickness goes against common sense, medical practice, and rationality. Suicide can also result from a catastrophic emotional breakdown or from a trauma so powerful that it cannot be integrated and simply breaks apart a person’s psyche so that death, as sleep, as an escape, becomes an overwhelming temptation. Here too, even though common sense, medical practice, and rationality are befuddled, we have some grasp of why this suicide happened.

But there are suicides that are not the result of a biochemical imbalance, a genetic predisposition, a catastrophic emotional distress, or an overpowering trauma. How are these to be explained?

Hillman, whose writing through more than fifty years have been a public plea for the human soul, makes this claim: The soul can make claims that go against the body and against our physical wellbeing, and suicide is often that, the soul making its own claims. What a stunning insight! Our souls and our bodies do not always want the same things and are sometimes so much at odds with each other that death can be the result.

In the tension between soul and body, the body’s needs and impulses are more easily seen, understood, and attended to. The body normally gets what it wants or at least clearly knows what it wants and why it is frustrated. The soul? Well, its needs are so complex that they are hard to see and understand, not alone attended to. As Pascal so famously put it: “The heart has it reasons of which reason knows nothing.” That is virtually synonymous with what Hillman is saying. Our rational understanding often stands bewildered before some inchoate need inside us.

That inchoate need is our soul speaking, but it is not easy to pick up exactly what it is asking of us. Mostly we feel our soul’s voice as a dis-ease, a restlessness, a distress we cannot exactly sort out, and as an internal pressure that sometimes asks of us something directly in conflict with what the rest of us wants. We are, in huge part, a mystery to ourselves.

Sometimes the claims of the soul that go against our physical wellbeing are not so dramatic as to demand suicide but in them, we can still clearly see what Hillman is asserting. We see this, for example, in the phenomenon where a person in severe emotional distress begins to cut herself on her arms or on other parts of her body. The cuts are not intended to end life; they are intended only to cause pain and blood. Why? The person cutting herself mostly cannot explain rationally why she is doing this (or, at least, she cannot explain how this pain and this blood-letting will in any way lessen or fix her emotional distress). All she knows is that she is hurting at a place she cannot get at and by hurting herself at a place she can get at, she can deal with a pain that she cannot get to. Hillman’s principle is on display here: The soul can, and does, make claims that can go against our physical well-being. It has its reasons. For Hillman, this is the “root metaphor” for how a therapist should approach the understanding of suicide. It can also be a valuable metaphor for all us who are not therapists but who have to struggle to digest the death of a loved one who dies by suicide.

Moreover this is also a metaphor that can be helpful in understanding each other and understanding ourselves. The soul sometimes makes claims that go directly against our health and well-being. In my pastoral work and sometimes simply being with a friend who is hurting, I sometimes find myself standing helplessly before someone who is hell-bent on some behavior that goes against his or her own well-being and which makes no rational sense whatsoever. Rational argument and common sense are useless. He’s simply going to do this to his own destruction. Why? The soul has its reasons. All of us, perhaps in less dramatic ways, experience this in our own lives. Sometimes we do things that hurt our physical health and well-being and go against all common sense and rationality. Our souls too have their reasons. And suicide too has its reasons.

First reading — Deuteronomy 6:2-6

Moses said to the people: ‘If you fear the Lord your God all the days of your life and if you keep all his laws and commandments which I lay on you, you will have a long life, you and your son and your grandson. Listen then, Israel, keep and observe what will make you prosper and give you great increase, as the Lord the God of your fathers has promised you, giving you a land where milk and honey flow.

‘Listen, Israel: the Lord our God is the 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.’

Psalm

Psalm 17:2-4,47,51

I love you, Lord, my strength.
I love you, Lord, my strength,
my rock, my fortress, my saviour.
My God is the rock where I take refuge;
my shield, my mighty help, my stronghold.
The Lord is worthy of all praise,
when I call I am saved from my foes.
Long life to the Lord, my rock!
Praised be the God who saves me,
He has given great victories to his king
and shown his love for his anointed.

Second reading — Hebrews 7:23-28

There used to be a great number of priests under the former covenant, because death put an end to each one of them; but this one, because he remains for ever, can never lose his priesthood. It follows, then, that his power to save is utterly certain, since he is living for ever to intercede for all who come to God through him.

To suit us, the ideal high priest would have to be holy, innocent and uncontaminated, beyond the influence of sinners, and raised up above the heavens; one who would not need to offer sacrifices every day, as the other high priests do for their own sins and then for those of the people, because he has done this once and for all by offering himself. The Law appoints high priests who are men subject to weakness; but the promise on oath, which came after the Law, appointed the Son who is made perfect for ever.

Gospel Acclamation — cf.Jn6:63,68

Alleluia, alleluia!

Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life; you have the message of eternal life.

Jn14:23

Alleluia, alleluia!

Jesus said: ‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him.’

Gospel

Mark 12:28-34

One of the scribes came up to Jesus and put a question to him, ‘Which is the first of all the commandments?’ Jesus replied, ‘This is the first: Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord, and you must 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 must love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.’ The scribe said to him, ‘Well spoken, Master; what you have said is true: that he is one and there is no other. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself, this is far more important than any holocaust or sacrifice.’ Jesus, seeing how wisely he had spoken, said, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ And after that no one dared to question him any more.

Copyright © 1996-2012 Universalis Publishing Limited: see www.universalis.com. Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible are published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. Text of the Psalms: Copyright © 1963, The Grail (England). Used with permission of A.P. Watt Ltd. All rights reserved.

WhatsApp Format
*Homily — 31st Sun O/Time*
Year B — 4^th Nov, 2018
_Deuteronomy 6:2-6;_
_Hebrews 7:23-28;_
_Mark 12:28b-34_

_“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”_ Albert Einstein

I read this with interest in our Justice and Peace newsletter. A similar expression from Einstein is this:
_“You cannot solve a problem using the same thinking you used to create the problem.”_

Today, as we once more reflect on this Gospel, it’s good to come with Einstein’s wisdom. We are all in agreement, I’m sure: *to love our neighbour and love God are connected.* We can’t love one with the loving the other. But, who is my neighbour?

In simple terms, in connection with the Gospel, we need to love our neighbour by looking after the earth where we live. *It’s not just about sharing food and money.*

Those men and women who labour quietly in the background creating new “green” energy systems are truly loving their neighbour, even if they never give $1 to help anyone directly.

The First Reading gave us a fantastic reminder of opportunity and challenge: _“Listen then, Israel, keep and observe what will make you prosper and give you great increase.”_ We all want to be prosperous & have increase.

The first change in our thinking, I humbly suggest, is: *it’s not someone else’s job, it’s my job.*

For example, if I own a restaurant, and I use wood cookers: _have I installed the efficient cooking machines that reduce heat loss, and thereby reduce the quantity of wood I consume?_

Spending money on efficient equipment will reduce operating expenses = *increased profits.* At the same time, we reduce forest destruction, and greenhouse gasses.

Can we walk short distances instead of “driving the car”? We will reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gases. Then we *prosper* as we spend less on fuel and medicine: because our health also improves through exercise.

Love isn’t just immediate action. It’s making decisions for the good of: self, others & the earth. Loving my neighbour means acting responsibly with our body. Caring for our health helps our family members in the future.

If we change our way of thinking, we will see that loving our neighbour has more than one dimension. How often do we hear people saying: _“it’s my body, I can do what I like with it!”_

Are those actions a sign of love or selfishness? So, as much as immediate actions of sharing food and money to help the poor are important, what is EQUALLY if not more important is this:

*Love your body:* _eat healthy, exercise and sleep well._
*Love the earth:* _don’t throw rubbish; use less resources; be efficient not wasteful._
*Support those building green energy:* _it will protect the earth longer, and it will reduce costs in the future._

If you are healthy and happy, you will help more people over the long term. If you respect the earth, you will enjoy a more beautiful & healthy environment forever.

Let’s Love God and our Neighbour, _not by using the old way of thinking._ STOP, be quiet, reflect… *then act.*

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