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Today, 21st of November, we celebrate
The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Moses spoke to the people, saying:
"Fear the LORD, your God,
and keep, throughout the days of your lives,
all his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you,
and thus have long life.
Hear then, Israel, and be careful to observe them,
that you may grow and prosper the more,
in keeping with the promise of the LORD, the God of your fathers,
to give you a land flowing with milk and honey.
"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!
Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God,
with all your heart,
and with all your soul,
and with all your strength.
Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today."
R./ I love you, Lord, my strength.
I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
R./ I love you, Lord, my strength.
My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.
R./ I love you, Lord, my strength.
The LORD lives! And blessed be my rock!
Extolled be God my savior.
You who gave great victories to your king
and showed kindness to your anointed.
R./ I love you, Lord, my strength.
Brothers and sisters:
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.
Therefore, he is always able to save those who approach God through him,
since he lives forever to make intercession for them.
It was fitting that we should have such a high priest:
holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners,
higher than the heavens.
He has no need, as did the high priests,
to offer sacrifice day after day,
first for his own sins and then for those of the people;
he did that once for all when he offered himself.
For the law appoints men subject to weakness to be high priests,
but the word of the oath, which was taken after the law,
appoints a son,
who has been made perfect forever.
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
"Which is the first of all the commandments?"
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."
The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
'He is One and there is no other than he.'
And 'to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself'
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him,
"You are not far from the kingdom of God."
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Peace and Goodness.
After several Sundays on the road to Jerusalem, today’s text places us in Jerusalem and in the Temple, which Mark has stripped of its Jewish intimacy and made universal. In this context, conversations take place at the highest level. Today a lawyer intervenes, favorably impressed by Jesus’ previous answers. Unlike Matthew, Mark removes any ulterior motive from his intervention. He does not go to “catch” the Master in order to find something to accuse him of.
Jesus’ answer to the question of the greatest commandment is very simple. Like all his sermons. It is said to be easy, but… How difficult to live! Love God above all things and your neighbor as yourself. And not only that, but with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your being. Well, wow.
Probably life in Jesus’ time would be very complicated. I am referring to the life of the true Jewish believer, with its more than 600 rules, positive and negative, that they had to follow. The fact is that when life gets too complicated – even religious life – it gets too complicated, you feel the need to tidy it up, to simplify it. In the end, what the writer wanted was to be able to know and live what is essential. To stop living under the weight of norms and to feel the joy of prayer and the encounter with God. To live what is important. And the most important thing is love.
It seems to me that we should be grateful to this lawyer for having approached Jesus to ask him this question. He also gave us the opportunity to clarify what is most important. In his answer, the Master unites the two commandments that already appeared in the Old Testament: to love God and to love our neighbor.
The love that God wants is not a fleeting feeling, a passing emotion, a declaration of love made only with the lips, but the total adherence to Him in the fulfillment of what pleases Him. The desire to know and do His will. For the Jews, the heart was not only the seat of emotion, but also of reason and decision. To love God with all one’s heart is to give Him control over all decisions and feelings.
It also means having an undivided heart, a heart in which there is no room for idols. When it is the Lord who fills the heart with His Word, there is no room for the greed of money, whims, ambitions, when it comes to weighing what to do, say, or want. A good point for reflection: Is my heart undivided or divided?
Likewise, it is important for us to know what is central to our lives. Jesus’ watchword is love. A love that goes in two directions. Towards God, giving Him a place of honor in our life, in our mentality, in our hierarchy of values. To know how to listen to him, to adore him, to meet him in prayer, to love what he loves. And to our brothers, to our “neighbor”, to those who are nice and those who are less nice, because they are all our brothers and sisters. To love them means not only not to hurt them, but also to help them, to welcome them, to forgive them… Let it not be something ethereal, but something concrete. “You cannot say that you love God, whom you do not see, if you do not love your brother, whom you see,” says the Apostle John (1 Jn 4:20-21).
In order to love others, it is necessary to be reconciled with oneself. Loving ourselves is the condition for being able to love others. If we hate ourselves, we will be aggressive toward others in our dealings with them. And as we grow in self-acceptance, we will feel freer to love others. Let us always remember that the first to love us is God. And from the experience of his love we can love others.
The lawyer thinks that the words of Jesus are true. He has listened attentively and responds wisely. There is no tension between them, as there is on other occasions. Even the Master’s last words confirm the climate of mutual understanding: “You are not far from the kingdom of God. A sincere question that receives an appropriate answer.
However, this learned man does not seem to have become a follower of Jesus. To be “near” does not mean to be “in”. With Jesus we have arrived in Jerusalem, and his followers have had time to understand his teachings and, if necessary, become disciples. But this is not for everyone. Some do not come to “see,” they remain blind, like Bartimaeus at the beginning of last week’s story.
If this is our situation, if we feel that we still do not love God above all things or our neighbor as ourselves, all is not lost. We can always retrace the road to Jerusalem with Jesus, continue to draw closer, continue to focus on God. For surely we are not far from the kingdom of God.
Your brother in faith,
Alejandro Carbajo, C.M.F.Jesus here among us offered himself for us.
He is living for ever
to intercede for all of us who come to him.
May his grace and peace be always with you.
R/ And also with you.
A. Love Summit and Summary of All Commandments
There is no greater love than that which disposes someone to give up one's life for others. Jesus, the person who tells us this, proved by his own life and death that he meant what he said. He insists that love of God and love of people are one and inseparable. It is perhaps easy to love an unseen God but it is often very difficult for us to love people whose weakness we see, people who are cranky and rough and unreliable. But if we cannot love these people, we really do not love God. Jesus, who is God's love alive, can give us his own endless, reliable love.
B. Share God's Love
People who love one another deeply are disposed to sacrifice themselves for one another. Yet, what counts more than the sacrifice itself, is their mutual love; that is the root. Love is so great because, more than anything else, it is a gift from God who loved us first. If we become fully aware of this it will be easy to love people and to be at peace and in love with ourselves, for God loves us in all our frailty and fickleness and he keeps accepting us. Why, then, should we not accept also those around us? We ask the Lord in this eucharist to let us feel his love and to enable us share it.
Whose love has not failed at times?
Let us ask the Lord and those we have hurt
to forgive us in the generosity of their heart.
(PAUSE)
Lord Jesus, let us share in your love
that was attentive to all people
and cured their ills:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Jesus Christ, let us share in your love
that embraced even sinners and outcasts:
Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, let us share in your love
that went all the way, even accepting death
to save the unjust, the ungrateful, the hard-hearted:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Have mercy on us, Lord,
and forgive us all our sins.
Make us capable of a love that excludes no one
and lead us to everlasting life. R/ Amen.
Let us pray to God, the source of all love
to refresh our love
(PAUSE)
Lord our God, loving Father,
all true love comes from you and leads to you.
You have committed yourself to us
in a covenant of lasting love
in the person of Jesus Christ.
Help us to respond to your love
with the whole of our being
and to live your commandments
not as laws forced on us from outside
but as opportunities to love you
for yourself and in people, our brothers and sisters.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
First Reading Introduction: Love the Lord with All Your Heart
God said as early as in the Old Testament: Listen, people of the covenant: The one Lord God loves you. Love God with all your heart.
Second Reading Introduction: Christ, the Definitive High Priest
Christ is the definitive mediator and high priest, for he is the eternal Son of God and he sacrificed himself totally for us. He alone can bring real communion with God.
Gospel Introduction: No Greater Than These Two
Listen, people of the new covenant: Love the Lord God with all that is in you; remember, that love includes everyone.
Love can hardly be commanded, yet it ought to be the heart of all we do. Let us pray to the Father of all love for the capacity to love him and our neighbor far and near. Let us say: R/ Lord, make us instruments of your love.
- That the Church for which Christ died may grow into a universal community of love which makes God's unconditional love visible to all people, let us pray: R/ Lord, make us instruments of your love.
- That Christians everywhere may not be people of legalisms and outward observances but people with a heart, who do what they have to do and more because they are God's children, let us pray: R/ Lord, make us instruments of your love.
- That the nations of the world may learn to respect and help one another, and to build peace and progress not at the expense of one another but on the basis of justice and equitable sharing, let us pray: R/ Lord, make us instruments of your love.
- That we may be reliable friends to those suffering in any form; that we may lighten their burdens and help them to keep trusting in God and people, let us pray: R/ Lord, make us instruments of your love.
- That our anemic and dried-up love may become rich and spontaneous, like a fresh breath of life and joy brightening the lives of those around us and a wordless song of praise to God, let us pray: R/ Lord, make us instruments of your love.
Loving God, we claim to belong to you and to your Son. Help us through your Spirit of love to give to your love a human shape, that we may make people happy and be your happy people in Christ Jesus our Lord. R/ Amen.
God our Father,
in these offerings of bread and wine
allow us to join your Son Jesus
in his perfect sacrifice of love.
Accept our heart, our life,
our thoughts and words and intentions,
our burdens and our joys
as a grateful way to respond to your love
and to bring life to our brothers and sisters.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
One of heart and voice, let us give thanks to God for the love shown us in Christ, a love that makes us capable of love. Jesus' obedience too has made us capable of giving to God a response of love.
By the power of the Holy Spirit
who dwells in our hearts,
we pray to our Father in heaven: R/ Our Father...
Deliver us, Lord, from every evil
of selfishness and calculation
and open us to your love.
Keep us free from the fear
of committing ourselves in love
to anyone who needs us,
and let our love for those around us
be the test of the quality
of our love for you.
Help us to be one in heart and soul
and to be a community of service,
as we wait in joyful hope
for the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ.. R/ For the kingdom...
This is the Lamb of God
who gave up his life for us
and who said:
Everyone will know
that you are my disciples
if you love one another
as I have loved you.
Happy are we to be invited
to share Jesus' meal of love. R/ Lord, I am not worthy...
Our God and Father,
we have learned from your Son
not merely to love others
as we love ourselves
but if necessary more than ourselves.
By the strength of this eucharist,
dispose us to rejoice with the happy
and to mourn with the sad,
to cultivate the best in ourselves
and to offer it to others as a free gift.
Help us never to take Christ without people,
never people without Christ,
who is our Lord for ever. R/ Amen.
Did we really need the reminder
that love is the heart of our faith,
as it is the heart of all human life?
Yes, if we are aware
that often we forget that love.
Perhaps the love of God is easier to keep in a way,
because God seems often far away.
But our neighbor is there,
with all his irritating blemishes and habits.
Let us not forget that he or she
is Christ meeting us on the road of life.
May God fill us with his love and bless us:
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Let us go with one another
the way of love of the Lord. R/ Thanks be to God.
