Fr Billy Swan
Dear friends. Any preacher or speech writer worth their salt has a clear idea of what they want to achieve before they deliver a homily or speech. And so, as you read these words, the objective of this homily is that after you finish, you will have a greater love for God and our neighbour. This is the goal and this is what Jesus asks of us in the Gospel today.
But how can that be done in a few minutes? Is it just a matter of telling people to love God and their neighbour or is there something more required? The answer of course is yes, there is more to it. It's not simply a matter of telling people they are loved but connecting them to an example of how that is true. Just as most metals expand when they are heated, we too need to be engaged by some person or story outside ourselves for our love to grow and expand.
In the first reading and in the Gospel for this Thirty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time, we are asked to ‘LISTEN’ or to ‘HEAR’. And so, our first task is to listen. Listen to what? To listen once again to the story of Jesus of Nazareth, whose life remains the greatest love story ever told. His story is of a life dedicated to love, justice and peace. It is a story that begs to be told and re-told with passion and conviction today by people who believe in it. There is, in fact, no story more beautiful, more powerful and more fascinating than that which the Bible presents – how the Creator of the universe, sent his Son out of love that we human beings in a fallen world might be raised up to share in the life of God. If it is told with conviction, it is a story that will capture minds and imaginations today as it did in times past.
I often ask myself the question - what was it that moved me to faith in the first place? What was it about the story of Jesus in the Gospels that first moved my heart to believe in him? The answer to that question is pretty straightforward. For me it was the love of Jesus that drew me to faith in him as the Son of God; it was the power of his compassion that changed lives forever.
Whether it was Bible stories my mother read to me at home as a child or films about Christ such as Franco Zafarelli’s ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ or Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion of the Christ’ – they were all moving and engaging. What was most captivating about Jesus’ love was how it was directed in two directions - outwards and downwards.
On the horizontal level, it flowed outwards to the poor, to the sick and to those on the edges. But as Son of God, Jesus also carried the love of God downwards to those who had descended beneath their dignity and raised them again to new hope and life.
The same thing happened for many of the saints. It was the love of God for them that moved them to love in return. As heat expands metal, so the warmth of God’s love expanded their hearts and changed their lives. And so, for example, for St Bernard of Clairvaux: ‘The lesser he has made himself in his humanity, the greater has he shown himself in kindness. The more he humbles himself on my account, the more powerfully he engages my love’.
For St Francis of Assisi, it was Jesus fastened on the cross that melted his soul so that ‘whenever Christ’s crucifixion came to his mind, he could scarcely contain his tears and sighs’ (St Bonaventure, The Life of St Francis). For Francis, this was the prelude to his love of the poor and his desire to serve them. The same was true for St Theresa of Calcutta. To love and serve the poor was to love and serve Christ who united himself to ‘the least of these brothers and sisters of mine’ (Matt. 25:32ff).
Friends, there is a temptation for the Church today to be relevant and even political. But as always, the Church must be a prophet of God’s desire to occupy first place in our lives – that his cross, his mercy and friendship revealed in Jesus Christ be the axis around which everything else turns. This is why the first and greatest commandment is the love of God and the priority of our friendship with Him.
And so, friends, let us listen once again with fresh ears and open hearts to the greatest story ever told. The love for God is the heat that makes our love grow for Him and for everything and everyone he has made.
‘Ah! Gentle and so loving,
You wake within me, proving that you are there in secret and alone;
Your fragrant breathing stills me, your grace you glory fills me
So tenderly your love becomes my own’.
St John of the Cross (1542-1591)