Homily for Penance Service

(Readings: Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Mark 12:28-34)
“Cogito, virgo sum.” Do you recognize what I am saying? Maybe not exactly. “Cogito, virgo sum.” “I think. I am a virgin.” This pun, of course, takes off on the famous phrase, “Cogito, ergo sum.” “I think, therefore I am.” With that sentence Rene Descartes changed the course of Western philosophy. There is a sentence in the Scripture readings today that has had an even more far-reaching effect.
“Shema Yisrael Adonai Elohayu Adonai Echad.” “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God – the Lord alone.” These words are taken from the Old Testament. But they are meant equally for us as for the Jews. We Christians, as the Vatican Council points out, are the new Israel. The famous Shema goes on to state what Jesus says is the first commandment, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”
A decade ago a Jesuit theologian wrote a disturbing article entitled, “The Eclipse of Love for God.” The theologian tells us that what was one primary to our Christian faith, our love for God, is now often dismissed. Some, he says, replace the love for God with love for neighbor. Others, he continues, believe that the command to love God is only another way of stating the requirement to love oneself! Gratefully, the theologian advises us that the commandment to love God still stands and can be fulfilled.
As we ask God’s forgiveness for our sins this evening, we might ask ourselves how well we have fulfilled the first commandment to love Him above all. Have we loved him with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength?
To love God “with all our heart” is to love God undividedly. Mother Teresa once said that her heart “belongs solely to Jesus.” We must try to imitate her. This does not mean that we love only God and feel indifferent to everyone else. If such an exclusive love were possible, it would not be love for God! As the First Letter of John says, “…whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (I Jn 4:20). But loving God with all our heart means that we do not divide our love for God with love for things of the world. We do not lust after flesh; we do not hanker after fortune; we do not thirst after fame.
The soul is the seat of supernatural life. To love God with “all our soul” means to love Him for the eternal life which only He can give us. Some may wonder, is it really love if the motive of our affection is our own benefit? But certainly thinking in this way denies our human personality. It is all right to love another for what we gain from that relationship as long as we are not just using the other as a means to our own self-satisfaction. As a lovely poem repeated every night on an old radio program put it, “I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.” We love God because He meets our needs today and promises us eternal life tomorrow.
When we love God with “all our mind,” we seek to know as much about Him as we can. We read the Bible and other religious literature. We seek answers to the great questions about God: Why does He tolerate evil? How does He consider people of other faith traditions? We have heard of the adage, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” Yet that is what some people seem to be doing by watching “thirty years of television coming back at us all at once through sixty cable channels.” Loving God may mean turning the TV off to read, to think, and to talk with others about Him.
The strength of our love for God is shown by our willingness to make sacrifices for Him. The Church commands us to give up meat on Fridays and Ash Wednesday during Lent. That’s a small sacrifice which should not consume much strength. A much greater sacrifice for married couples would be to abide by the Church’s teaching against contraception. For most couples, I suppose, that would take all one’s strength! All of us can show the strength of our love for God by conversing with God in prayer continually.
In the prefaces to his gospel and then to the Acts of the Apostles St. Luke mentions a certain “Theophilus.” He may have a particular person in mind, but just as likely he may be thinking of all of us. “Theophilus,” you see, means “lover of God.” And all of us love Him, at least a little. Let us now try to love Him with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength.