“Loving God through our neighbor.”
31st Sundy in Ordinary Time – B
“This is the most important of all Jewish prayers, “Shema Israel Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad” are the first words of the Jewish prayer known as “Shema Israel.” It is a declaration of faith and a pledge of allegiance to God. Twice daily, recitation of the Shema Israel is a mitzvah for the Jewish people. It is said upon rising in the morning and before going to sleep at night. It is said when praising God and beseeching him. The Shema Israel is the first prayer taught to Jewish children and the last words a Jew says before death. It is a prayer of praise to God and a prayer of beseeching as well. The Shema Israel is recited in preparation for the reading of the Torah on the Sabbath and Jewish holydays and at the end of the holiest day, Yom Kippur. [In the Shema Israel, God’s name is not read aloud but is replaced by Adonai]” “Hear O Israel, God is Lord, God is one.”
In the gospel, Jesus states the two great Commandments, and the first is this: You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.
And the second is this, that you must love your neighbor as yourself.
These two Commandments complement each other. They are like the two sides of the same coin.
To love God is to love neighbor. To love God whom we can’t see is to love our neighbor whom we can see.
A religious nun was writing about her vocation story and she recalled a childhood experience that probably planted the seed for her vocation. She wrote:
I never liked Tracy, though she lived two doors from me, and she is about my age. I thought she looked funny and strange (later I came to know that she has “Downs Syndrome”). I never liked to talk to her, much less play with her.
One day, my mother invited her and her mother over for lunch. My mother made me sit directly across the table to Tracy. I frowned and showed my displeasure but my mum glared at me and she was not going to change the seating arrangement.
I sulked over my lunch. After lunch came the dessert which is mango pie, which was my favorite. My elder brother knew that I was sulking and to taunt me further, took a double share of the pies. There was a piece for everyone at table, no more, no less.
When the tray of pies was handed to Tracy, there was only one piece left and it was obviously for her. Tracy looked around the table and she looked at my empty plate. And then she passed the tray with that last piece of mango pie to me and said only two words, “You take”.
I felt terrible then, but I took it. But something in me made me cut that piece of pie into half and I gave one half to Tracy.
When I did that, something strange happened to me. Tracy didn’t look funny anymore. She has become my friend. That was one of my early experiences of love for neighbor.
It is a nice and heartwarming story that tells us that when we love our neighbor, God’s love will grow greater in us. Yes, love for God and love for neighbor are the two sides of the same coin.
Be it family, friends or neighbors, let it be written in our hearts that we must love them as we love God, with our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole mind and all our strength.
How we love on Earth will be echoed in heaven.
Let us remember the prayer of our Jewish brothers and sisters; that nothing is as important as loving God in our neighbor. In God we are all ONE!