Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
(II Timothy 2:8-15; Mark 12:28-34)
We nod affirmingly to the words of Jesus in today’s
gospel. “Yes,” we say, “we are to love
God above all and to love our neighbors as ourselves.” But then, as Paul points out in the first
reading, we quibble about words. “What
does it mean to say, “above all”? we ask,
and “How can I be expected to show the same love to another household as I do
my own?”
Responses to our queries need not be abstract. “Above all” means that we realize, as Bishop
Robert Barron frequently says, that our lives are not about ourselves but about
God. We are to seek what He wants of us,
not what we may like for ourselves. I
might enjoy watching sports events at the bar with my friends on Sunday
evenings, but my conscience – that is God speaking -- tells me to spend time at
the nursing home visiting an old relative.
As everything else in the world, love should be
ordered. We can hardly pay as much
attention to the needs of all who are around us as we do to ourselves and our
families. Loving our neighbor as
ourselves means that we don’t forget them as we proportion our resources. Certainly, our children have a greater claim
on our time than the neighbor’s children.
But those children too require our consideration and effort.
