Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
One of the first things Bishop Boyea was asked in 2008 when he was introduced as the newest Bishop of Lansing, and one of the things that priests are often asked in their first weekend as they begin at a new parish is the four word question: Michigan or Michigan State?
We often tend to put things into an “either…or” category. In academia we all this a dichotomy, a choice between two different things. In our politics: Republican or Democrat; in our fountain drinks: Pepsi or Coke; in our schools: Catholic or public; in our housing choice: rent or own; in our cars and beer: domestic or foreign. Maybe it’s easier for our mind to operate this way, but we tend to put people in one of two camps.
So today, given our predilection for dichotomies, perhaps we think of it as love of God, or love of neighbor. We probably don’t think of it that way, exactly, but we tend to focus on one, and perhaps we don’t focus on the other. Maybe we like going to church, we love a beautiful liturgy, we love learning about our faith; or we like serving the poor, working at food pantries, promoting social justice.
But to the scribe who comes up to Jesus and asks him the first of all the commandments, Jesus doesn’t try to pigeon-hole His answer into simply one or the other. He says both love of God and love of neighbor. Love of God is from the first reading we heard today in the Book of Deuteronomy. Love of neighbor as oneself is from the Book of Leviticus. Both are the most important commandments. Both are part and parcel of following Jesus.
One could rightly point out that serving God is more important than anything else. Part of what is radical in Jesus is that He demands total obedience, even above family, which only God could claim. Being a do-gooder is not the same as being a disciple. There are people who serve the poor, and yet reject God, and while I’m not the judge, rejecting God on this earth, especially in a purposeful way, is probably more on the road to Hell than Heaven.
But still, St. John, in his first Letter, says that we cannot serve the God that we don’t see, if we do not serve our neighbor (he uses the word brother) that we do see. Being a philanthropist does not assure us of heaven. But ignoring Jesus in the least of His brothers and sisters (to paraphrase Matthew 25) is also not helpful in us receiving eternal salvation. St. John Chrysostom, one of the saints in our icons, says it this way:
Do you want to honor Christ’s body? Then do not scorn him in his nakedness, nor honor him here in the church with silken garments while neglecting him outside where he is cold and naked. For he who said: This is my body, and made it so by his words, also said: You saw me hungry and did not feed me, and inasmuch as you did not do it for one of these, the least of my brothers, you did not do it for me.
Jesus instructs us of the great Catholic principle: both…and. Both love of God and love of neighbor, not either or.
Most people focus on one or the other, love of God or love of neighbor. So today Jesus challenges us to make sure that a focus on one does not mean the exclusion of the other. Do you love worshipping God here in the church, being formed by the Mass and by our faith formation groups, learning more and more about what God has revealed through Scripture and Tradition? Wonderful! But remember: those clothes that you never wear in your closet or dresser: those belong to the poor; they have a right to them.
Do you love being with people and bringing them the love of God through your actions? Do you feed them, clothe them, work for justice on their part? Wonderful! But if you skip worshipping God at Sunday Mass to serve the poor, then you are making an idol of the poor and worshipping them rather than God.
St. Theresa of Calcutta, Mother Theresa, is an embodiment of both…and. Yes, most of her day was spent working with the poor, the outcast, and the dying. But she never missed her opportunities for daily Mass and a Holy Hour of Adoration in front of the Blessed Sacrament. That was the most important part of her day, and it gave her the strength to serve the poor, the outcast, and the dying.
Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati is another embodiment of both…and. He loved being outdoors, enjoying the beauty of God’s creation, being sustained by the Eucharist in Mass, but he secretly did work with the poor, contracting and dying of polio that was so prevalent among the poor he served. And his secret was so well kept, that his rich parents had no idea who all the people were who attended his funeral, though the poor knew Pier Giorgio as a person who cared for them and their needs.
Life is too complicated to be simply divided into two things. Our faith is too rich to be simply divided into two things. It’s not Scripture or Tradition, it’s both Scripture and Tradition; it’s not faith or reason, it’s both faith and reason; it’s not Word or Sacrament, it’s both Word and Sacrament; it’s not love of God or love of neighbor, it’s both love of God and love of neighbor.