October 31: 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Reading I: Deuteronomy 6:2-6
Responsorial Psalm: 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51
Reading II: Hebrews 7:23-28
Gospel: Mark 12:28b-34

Jesus couldn’t be more clear about the most important commandments, love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Wow! Now all we have to do is live up to Jesus’ ways of loving God: “Love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.”  And “love your neighbor as yourself.”  How in God’s name can we get our head around such winsome commands? We can with a lot of help from God’s Holy Spirit. I’ve asked God many times a day for months on end, “What do you want me to do?” I listen up and step into a world that is crying out for love, first a planet in need of love. Yes, I discern with a great deal of help from spiritual mentors how to love God with my entire being and there in the news is Pope Francis encouraging all humanity to take care of God’s creation. He said, “we must not leave a desert tor our children.”  Before the COP26 November 1-12 global climate change conference in Glasgow we’ve heard Pope Francis ask us all, especially those at the conference “to take speedy, responsible and shared action to safeguard, restore and heal our wounded humanity and the home entrusted to our stewardship.” So there is one way of showing our love for God, care for our common home. Sure, we recycle but, truly we need to step up our game if our grandchildren are to breathe. How about we buy no more single-use plastic?  If a waitress brings us a plastic straw, let’s say, “Please ask management to stop buying single-use plastics.” How about we bring pitchers of ice to every event so we are never tempted to provide or use water from a plastic bottle?  

When Deuteronomy tells us to fear God, we are meant to reverence God. No, I am not making this up; word meaning and usage change over the centuries. Just how reverential and filled with awe do we let ourselves be when we gaze at a new born baby, a tree ablaze in fall colors, a child’s smile, a student’s glow when he grasped an intricate learning?  Are we reverentially acknowledging God’s work? What else shows that our mind, our heart, and our soul are all loving God?   

On November 1 we celebrate All Saints Day. Some of my favorites are: St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint for care for God’s creation and St. Theresa of Avila, a church reformer who gave spiritual direction to St. John of the Cross who was 27 yrs younger than she was. St. Teresa discovered Jesus was her best friend and she survived five interrogations by the inquisition. St. Therese of Lisieux, the little flower, the saint of the little way, the small ways we delight our neighbors even when they will not notice who helped them. St. Maximillian Kolbe gave his life in the place of a young father during the Holocaust. Each of these so loved God they were empowered to deeply love their neighbors. 

How well do we love our neighbor? No matter if no one in our neighborhood ever brought a pot of soup or a casserole to any of us in 58 years we can start that up by listening with our heart to what is happening in our neighborhood and responding with love. Family Promise (we used to call RAIHN) was founded by a woman who brought a sandwich to a woman she saw in Grand Central station.  Instead of rushing off to her important meeting, Karen sat down with the woman and heard her story.  Soon her children and father were accompanying Karen to spots where they would meet people without homes. They brought food and blankets. They listened to more stories.  Karen went to her church and a few other faith communities to ask for support for our neighbors and, not surprisingly, they read the same gospels we read and the same prophets Jesus studied when he was a boy. And because they love God and neighbor, Family Promise has spread throughout the USA helping many neighbors. 

When I enter the voting booth on November 2, I will bring our neighbors on my heart as well as on my mind. I will ask God how best to vote so I show my love for my neighbor. 

By Dr. Deni Mack, Pastoral Associate Emerita