By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Homily by Archbishop Thomas Wenski at Mass with the Ocean Reef community of St. Justin Martyr Church. Saturday, Feb. 18, 2017.
In September 2015, Pope Francis visited the United States and for the first time in history a Pope addressed a joint session of Congress. He spoke of many things – and given the continued polarization in our nation, we could well by rereading his address. (Which can be easily accessed through google). But he ended quoting the “Golden Rule” – do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And to those concern about separation of church and state, I would point out that directly across from the podium when the Pope spoke is a relief picturing Moses, the great law giver of the Old Testament. In fact, there are also two reliefs of Popes known for their development of law in the middle Ages. Church and state may be separated, but not religion and society, nor the requirement for integrity and transparency in our public and private lives.
“Love your neighbor as you love yourself” we hear in our first reading from Leviticus. The Lord lays down the law to Moses: No hatred, no revenge, no grudges but love your neighbor as yourself. And Moses coming down from Mount Sinai gives the law to the chosen people.
In the gospel – which is a continuation of the Sermon on the Mount which we have been hearing for the past several weeks – Jesus is also laying down a new law to those who would be the new people of God, people of a new covenant, a new testament.
In doing so, he does not abolish to old Law and the prophets – but rather he is fulfilling them, bringing them to completeness or perfection. In fact, when Jesus says, “You have heard it said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy… that “hate your enemy part” while widely believed then as it is today is found nowhere in the Bible. The word of God never says – anywhere – to hate your enemies.
Jesus tells us to love our enemies – this is not easy; but neither has it been easy to love our neighbors. In fact, perhaps the reason we don’t love our neighbors as we love ourselves is that we don’t really love ourselves very well. Look, those hoodlums who would mug an old lady and steal her purse don’t love her, to be sure. But, they’re not stealing her purse because they have hungry kids at home to feed. No, I’d bet they had a drug habit to feed. Somebody using drugs is basically killing themselves with that poison. And if he’s doing that he must not love himself. He doesn’t love himself, why would he love that old lady and leave her and her purse alone.
But forget about the drug crazed hoodlum and look into our own hearts and souls. The grudges we nurse, the hatreds we stroke, the revenge we dream about – how much of this lack of love towards our neighbor a reflection of our own lack of love towards ourselves. Don’t we at times indulge in any number of self-destructive behaviors – and isn’t that because we don’t love or respect ourselves as we should. As somebody said, “Resentment is like taking poison yourself and then expecting the other person to die.
To love your neighbor as you love yourself requires you to love yourself. I’ m not telling you to be egoistical, narcissistic or selfish; but I’m saying that you have to love yourself as made in the image and likeness of God. If you do that, then the Golden Rule makes sense. It’ll mean more than doing unto others before they do unto you. God loves us, he created us and in Jesus Christ, he redeems us– not to love ourselves is to suggest that God doesn’t know what he’s doing.
Jesus perfects the law and prophets – and gives us a new law, one that is meant to perfect or complete us. That new law is like the old but with a twist. If the old law says Love God and Love your neighbor as you love yourself, the new law of Jesus – a law that he gives its finest expression at the Last Supper is simple, Love one another, as I have loved you.
Thus Jesus becomes the measure of our love: If we want to know what love is, look at Jesus. In Jesus, love endures all, love forgives all. There’s a Latin phrase, I believe from Thomas Aquinas, Nemo dat quo non habet. Nobody can give what he doesn’t have.
Which is why we are here today: we come to the table of God’s Word and the altar of sacrifice. We know our wounds– our lack of love for our neighbor, not to mention our lack of love for those we may consider our adversaries, our lack of love for ourselves. Lord, I am not worthy, say but the word and my souls shall be healed. If we are going to love as Jesus loves, we need Jesus.
We are called to love even our enemies. Now love might not change an enemy; maybe it might confuse him but it won’t necessarily change him. So we don’t just love as a strategy to get something. It’s not about the “art of the deal”. We love not because of what someone might give us in return but because of who we are, who we have become in Christ Jesus, in whose Body and Blood we share. We love because it is the Way of Jesus – and there is no other way to eternal life.
