The Order of Love

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author.

Jesus in the Gospel today is responding to hostile leaders, scribes and Pharisees who are trying to trick Him. But He uses that, to give a teaching about the foundations, the fundamentals of who we are. God has created us with a desire, a deep desire, all since we were very little children, since we were born, a desire for love, the deepest desire for it to be loved and to respond to love. And so in this world, there’s so much disappointment, so much pain and heartbreak, when we’re seeking for this love, and often don’t experience it. So we experience often weak loves, or even false loves, loves that betray us. And so in our world, in our world, which is a mess, all the terrible news about shootings and violence in the Middle East and so forth. It’s very hard to find that love, but which there’s such a thirst for in us. And a lot of people wonder, where can we, is it possible to find that love, is that possible? There’s a lot of false experts who pretend to show the path, but is it someone that we can really trust? And that’s the privilege we have, as Catholics to be able to gather together at Mass and turn to our Lord. Jesus has shown us the path of true love, lasting love. He’s someone that we can trust. And He shows us the way. He reveals the Father, the Father, who is the source of all love. All true love comes from the Father, if it doesn’t come from the Father, it’s not really love. And the Father is not a God who has – satan always tries to present Him as a God who is trying to control us and dominate us and force things on us and limit us. But He is the Father, who just desires to give of Himself, and to give what is best for us. And so Jesus, as no one else, is showing us this path, which in one way is revolutionary. And yet on the other hand, it’s very simple and clear and practical. And so in the Gospel today, when Jesus responds to that question – but what is the greatest commandment? A key point, which I want to underline, and we’ve talked about this before, but I think it’s worth coming back to is the He shows that there’s an order. He says, “This is the greatest, and the first commandment.” So there is an order to these commandments, there is an order of love. Both of these commandments are about love. But Jesus shows that there is an order. And the order is key. Because if we put creatures first, we end up losing God, and the creatures and our own soul for all eternity. But if we put God first, we gain God, and we gain the whole immense family of God, and we gain our own soul for eternal life. And so the order is extremely important. You know, I don’t often hear in confessions, people confessing the sin of idolatry, right? We’re Catholics, we’ve got a lot of sins, at least we’re not idolaters. But if we realize that idolatry is putting a creature before God, then idolatry is extremely common.  You know, it might be things like money or prestige, or, or a house or something. But it can also be putting good things, other persons who are good and that we are called to love but putting them first, wanting them to be the source of my happiness, wanting them to fill my life. A friend, that’s a danger if I go into marriage thinking my spouse is going to make me happy, fill my life with happiness. No creature can satisfy the human heart.  I’ve heard women say sometimes that I thought when I got married, I thought my husband was like my God, my idol. That usually wears off after a while. But whether it’s a spouse, or whether it’s the children, or whether it’s parents, or whether it’s some other human idol; like we even had that show, you know, American Idol, making an idol out of movie stars, or entertainment, or sports idols, or all sorts of different idols in our world, putting them before God. And for instance, many times people are in a relationship, and then the relationship falls apart. And so the first thing they do is run to try to get in another relationship. And so their just perpetuating the problem, because there’s a more fundamental problem than that person. The more fundamental problem is, I’m trying to find in a creature, what I can only find in God, the Creator, and God the source. And so as long as, so if I think, oh, that wasn’t the right person, so I have to find the other person. But oftentimes, this, as I say, there’s a more fundamental problem. It’s, I’m trying to find in a creature, what can only be found in God. And that’s why Jesus is making this point about putting God first. So that’s what he says, when they asked, he says, “You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your soul.” And in another gospel, it’s also with all your strength. Because our heart, as the mystics say, “Our heart is made for God.” So there’s an infinite, like, some mystics compared to an infinite cavern in our hearts, that no creature can fill, that only God can fill. So in you, there is an infinite capacity that God has placed, because He’s created a new capacity for Him that only He can fill. St. Faustina speaking of this says, “I do not expect anything from creatures.” That’s a radical thing to say, I do not expect anything from creatures, because we expect all sorts of things from creatures. And she says, “and therefore I am not disappointed.” And we are often disappointed, because we don’t find in creatures what we’re seeking in creatures. She goes on to say, “I know that a creature is poor of itself.” Creatures are poor, we’re all poor. “So what can I expect from it? God is everything for me.” God is everything for me. We sometimes sing that song from the words of Saint Teresa. Solo Dios basta, God alone satisfies. No one can satisfy us, but God, that that’s very easy to say. But learning that fundamental truth is life changing. So many, so many of our struggles come from seeking in creatures, what we can only find in God. And sometimes God permits very painful disappointments with creatures. Sometimes those can be the occasions, a painful occasion, can be helpful to turn, so that I don’t try to find, I don’t look for in a creature, what I can only find in God. So Jesus says, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, or your mind or your strength. So that means He’s saying, love Me. He doesn’t say love Me 65% and that still gives you 35% to love everybody else, right? He says 100%. So that means there’s nothing left for anybody else. Right? Right?. If He says love with your whole heart, then there’s nothing left to love anybody else. So He wants all the love for Himself and not for anybody else. Right? Am I wrong? Okay, maybe I’m wrong. So because He’s not speaking, He’s not motivated by the human jealousy and possessiveness, that so often we experience, and on the contrary, He precisely says, “My commandment is that you love one another.” Okay, imagine yourself saying this to someone that you love that you’ve given a lot to. So, I have loved you so much, so what I want is for you to love others. Now what are we used to thinking, I have loved you so much, so you should love me, right? But here, what He’s saying is, I want you, I want you to love Me. But I also want you to love others, as I have loved you, to the point of giving your life. And so that’s when you think about that very striking, this God was so important to Him, not just that we’d love Him, but that we’d love others. You think for instance of a window, a window doesn’t give light by itself. But if it’s open, and if it’s clean, it can receive the light that’s coming to it. And it can let that light pass through. You know, the walls don’t do that, walls stop the light. But windows let the light come through. And so that’s what we can be. We’re not the source of love, and if we try to be the source of love ourselves, we’re bound for failure, because we can’t love how can we love the way Jesus loves. That’s impossible for us sinners, unless we receive His love, and it’s like the window, which receives the light from God from the sun and let it through. So we can love that way if we let Jesus love in us. That’s why Jesus said, abide in My love, like the branches abide in the vine. So we’re not the source of love, and we don’t have to be the source of love. But if we abide connected to Jesus, like the branch to the vine, then His love can flow through us. He                                               doesn’t want His love just to stop in us and just to be for Him. But He wants us, if we love Him, then that love can flow through to others. And so that’s the paradox that we see in the lives of the saints. The more they love God with their whole heart, the more they’re capable of loving others, beyond any human capacity, with a mature, free love, not unhealthy, possessive codependent. But a love which is generous and giving, because God wants to give Himself so that we can receive that love, and then also then give that love. And we have beautiful examples, like in the old testament of this. Sarah, who has been this young girl, young woman who was being attacked in her marriage. Her marriage was being attacked by this demon Asmodeus.  As soon as she tried to marry these men, the demon had killed them. And I think it’s a sign not just a physical death, but of the way that demons attack marriages and marital union, and Tobit and Sarah, with the help of the Archangel Raphael, are freed of that, when they put God first in their marriage. By putting God first, it doesn’t break their marriage, it unites their marriage and protects it against the evil one. In the greatest example, of course, we have is in the holy family who are present, represented in this chapel, and the Holy Family, because they put God first. That didn’t separate them, that united them in a way, in a deeper way than any other couples have ever experienced. And so putting God first is not a barrier to love. But it’s the necessary condition, so that that love can be full and eternal. And so, Jesus, as I say, is giving us this very fundamental, simple, practical, clear guidance about the order of love, how important the order of love is by putting God first.  But it doesn’t end there. Then it’s called to flow out through all His children. So I just want to summarize again what I said. That if we put creatures first, we end up losing the creatures and God, and our own soul. If we put God first, we end up gaining God and all His family, all His immense family, at His immense kingdom and our own soul. And so in this Mass, we can ask our blessed mothers intercession to help us live this guidance. And I’ll just end by rereading this passage from the Gospel, the words of our Lord, and if you want you can close your eyes to listen to them.  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Amen.

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Matthew 22: 34-40