A Homily for Friday of the Third Week of Lent
Friday, March 28, 2025
Prince of Peace Catholic Church – 8:00 Mass
Hosea 14:2-10; Psalm 81:6c-8a, 8bc-9, 10-11ab, 14 and 17; Mark 12:28-34
Audio Recording
One of the scribes, when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well he had answered them, asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?
This conversation with the scribe is very different in tone from Jesus’ preceding dialogue with the Sadducees when they tried to trip Jesus up with an insincere question about marriage in the resurrection. The Scribe in today’s gospel passage approaches Jesus in sincerity and good will.
As a professional scholar of the Mosaic law, he had observed and wondered at the astuteness of Jesus’ response regarding the resurrection in the verses just preceding today’s reading, so this Scribe seeks Jesus’ wisdom on another hot topic that was debated among the scholars of the day.
You see, the Torah was full of commandments — 613 of them, according to later rabbinic tradition — and it was common in discussions among the Scribes to look for the one general statement or overriding principle that would summarize and ground them all. Thus his question: “Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Jesus provides the definitive answer to this question by saying there are TWO things that sum up the ENTIRE Mosaic law:
1. Love God
2. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Loving God – Jesus tells us that the first thing we must do to fulfill the law is to love God with all that we have: our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Loving God is primarily about being receptive to his love and friendship through a life of grace through prayer and the sacraments.
We love God with our HEARTS and SOULS when we place him first in our lives by faithfully attending Mass and keeping his commandments.
We love him with our MINDS when we seek to be intellectually formed in Christ. Spiritual reading, attending formation events, and studying scripture are all ways to deepen our knowledge and friendship with Christ. Finally, we love God with all our STRENGTH when we seek to be conformed to Jesus Christ’s perfect humanity, namely by imitating his virtues.
Loving Our Neighbors – The second thing we must do to fulfill the law is to love our neighbors as ourselves. It is important to realize that we cannot love others well without fulfilling the first part of the commandment, which is to love and be loved by God.
What does loving our neighbors look like in our everyday lives? St. Paul teaches us that love is patient and kind. It is not jealous, pompous, inflated, rude, self-seeking, quick-tempered, or resentful. It seeks the truth and bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things. It never fails. After reading that list, each of us could choose at least one thing to work on in order to love our neighbor better.
No matter how much progress we’ve made in our spiritual journey, each of us can grow in virtue. I know that I can be impatient, unkind, self-centered, and ill-tempered at times. I suspect that if we honestly examine ourselves we’ll find that each of us has some work to do in at least one of these areas.
Today let’s ask the Lord to give us his grace to choose one aspect of love to focus on in the coming week and seek to more closely conform ourselves to Christ by being more patient and kind with others as we continue to deepen and grow in our love of God.