Hosea 14:2-10
Mark 12:28-34
Robert Waldrop has written,
“Today's message is simple: Turn away from idolatry and worship the one true God. Hosea calls us to put our trust in God, not in the work of human hands, not in the military might of the superpowers of the era, but rather in the God who gives compassion to the fatherless.
“As we do this, our 'defection' is healed, wrath is turned away, the desert blossoms and becomes fruitful. Jesus teaches us that the two greatest commandments are to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
“We can't be in love with God if we aren't in love with our neighbor -- the second greatest commandment is solidarity.
“We do well to ask ourselves -- where is the solidarity in our communities today? Do we see the poor, the foreigner, the marginalized as our neighbor and thus love them as we love our own lives?
"If so, why do we snatch the food stamps from their hands and give them over to the rich, shifting federal spending from means-tested poverty programs to corporate welfare and pork-barrel appropriations?
“Oh, feeding the hungry creates more hunger, we read, but that's not what Jesus said, that's the message of politicians and editorial writers. Americans don't feel much solidarity with the people of other nations whose children are dying.
“Where is our solidarity with the poor and desperate workers making pennies an hour under unsafe conditions working for transnational corporations making toys for us to give our kids?
“These are not comfortable thoughts, but Jesus is the one who says we must love our neighbor as we love ourselves. He explains what we needed to know -- clearly and without ambiguity. When we understand this, like the scribe who questioned Jesus, we are not far from the Reign of God.”
Francis Martin has written that
“Purity of heart consists of loving God above all else. Israel learned this from God himself and recited it three times every day in the famous Shema.
“In the first reading today, from the prophet Hosea, God himself is calling upon his people to abandon their fruitless search for an easy security in the work of their hands, which are the gods they make for themselves. He is calling them to be faithful to the Shema.
“Jesus has taught us the revolutionary truth that we must love God and each other with the same love, and that we cannot separate these one from the other.
“Our love for God is a return of love. It consists in allowing the love God has for us to take its place in our hearts and become a return of love to him.
“St. Catherine of Siena once heard God tell her, 'I have placed you in the midst of your brothers and sisters so that you can do for them what you cannot do for me. That is, you can love them freely without expecting any return.'”
Posted by John
at 12:01 AM CST
