Love of God and Love of Neighbor: Implications
By Bishop Paul S. Loverde
Herald Columnist
(From the issue of 11/9/06)
The following homily was given by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde on Nov. 5, 2006, the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, at Saint Thomas More Cathedral in Arlington.
Years ago, in a commentary
on today’s gospel passage from Saint Mark’s Gospel (12: 28b-34),
I read the following statement: “Love of God and Love of neighbor:
you can accept both or you can reject both, but you cannot separate them
or choose only one of them.” Yes, Jesus is very clear in telling
us that love of God and love of neighbor go together. In answering the
scribe’s question, “Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Jesus replied with the quote from the Book of Exodus, which forms our
first reading today. “The first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your
strength.’” And then Jesus immediately added: “The second
is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment
greater than these.” Yes, that commentator was right on target.
We can accept “Love of God and love of neighbor” or we can
reject both, but we cannot separate them, choosing one over the other.
So then, in a very fundamental way, the whole of our religious practice
is rooted in this two-fold commandment of love. We must love God with
our entire being and above all else. We show this love by praying and
receiving the sacraments; by obeying God’s Word, which comes to
us in the Scriptures, in Tradition and through the Teaching Office of
the Church; and by doing God’s Will in our individual vocations.
We also show our love for God by loving our neighbor as ourselves. Notice
that we must love others the way we love ourselves. Initially, this may
sound strange. We must love ourselves correctly, that is, seeing ourselves
as created by God and therefore endowed with inestimable dignity; seeing
ourselves as called by God to holiness and therefore called to imitate
Jesus in all we are and do. Loving ourselves correctly enables us to desire
that we be saved in accord with God’s will and to see ourselves
from His viewpoint as totally dependent on Him and on His loving care
for us.
If we love ourselves correctly, then we can love others — our neighbor
— correctly as well. We love them by desiring their total welfare,
including their eternal salvation. We love them by reaching out to assist
them in their spiritual or material needs. This love for others must be
tangible, visible and effective. Without any doubt, loving God and loving
our neighbor as ourselves is central to our living as disciples of Christ
and members of His Body, the Church.
Frank Duff understood this so well. He realized that loving God and loving
others remain inseparable. He saw tremendous need in the Ireland of his
day, so in 1921 Frank Duff founded the Legion of Mary, which is now the
largest lay Apostolic organization in the Catholic Church, with millions
of members across the world. Mr. Duff’s purpose in beginning the
Legion of Mary was to proclaim God’s love to people in every place,
to provide spiritual assistance and to do this in concrete ways like evangelizing
families and inviting people to return to the Church and to join the Church.
Mr. Duff died on Nov. 7, 1980, and his cause for sainthood has been introduced.
I am offering this Mass today for the intention that his journey toward
becoming proclaimed a saint, becoming canonized, will move forward. A
goodly number of the Legion of Mary is with us, praying for this intention.
Let me add that the Legion of Mary is very active within our diocese,
and for that, I give thanks to God and to each of them.
Moreover, each year, members of the Legion of Mary take part in a week-long
pilgrimage of door-to-door evangelization in an out-of-state location;
this is called a “Peregrinatio Pro Christo.” This year, a
group led by Father Stephen McGraw will go to Bolivia toward the middle
of this month. Those missionary Legionaries of Mary are here and will
receive a blessing and commissioning following this homily. Love of God
and Love of neighbor fuels their desire to take part in this pilgrimage
of evangelization.
Love of God and Love of neighbor also energize us to promote the common
good. This week, on Tuesday, we can witness to this two-fold commandment
of love by taking part in the election process. Voting is part and parcel
of our civic responsibility. Late last month, Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo
and I wrote a pastoral letter to all the Catholics in the Commonwealth,
entitled “Church Teaching and Civic Responsibility.” We are
urging every Catholic to vote on Tuesday, and in advance of that vote,
“to reflect on what is most important to us, and to gather all the
information needed to make well-informed decisions.” We ended our
letter in this way: “We … will continue to teach two basic
truths — that, no matter what the issue is, human dignity must be
the central consideration; and that, above all else, our laws must honor
the right to life without which no other right could even exist.”
A complete copy of our letter can be found in the Oct. 26th issue of the
Arlington Catholic HERALD.
Moreover, Bishop DiLorenzo and I are also urging our Catholics in both
dioceses and people of good will throughout the Commonwealth to support
the Constitutional Amendment on Marriage. Again, we have written a pastoral
letter outlining the Church’s teaching on marriage as the union
of one man with one woman and explaining the reasons for this definition.
That letter, entitled “The Institution of Marriage and the Common
Good” and an accompanying Questions and Answers article are available
at www.vacatholic.org. In this past week’s HERALD (Nov. 2), I wrote
an article, responding to some of the questions raised in recent days
and weeks.
Yes, upholding marriage as the union of one man with one woman does ensure
the common good and is a concrete application of the two-fold commandment
of love. Any time is the right time to preserve and to protect the institution
of marriage between one man and one woman — and only that. With
a question on marriage on this year’s ballot for every Virginia
voter to consider, however, a watershed moment is now upon us. I wish
to make several points.
1. God Himself is the author of marriage, which has an original design
and purpose long before any nation, religion, or government was established.
Therefore, far from imposing a sectarian viewpoint on anyone — which
is what the amendment’s opponents are saying — the Church
is saying that no government and no church — not ours nor any other
— has the legitimate authority to redefine marriage.
2. The opponents to this amendment state that their opposition is more
explicitly focused on the fact that this amendment will also ban any form
of “civil unions” between same-sex couples. I reply by reminding
us that once the state assigns to a relationship all the rights and benefits
of marriage, that relationship is already equated to marriage whether
one calls it that or not. From a legal standpoint, any form of “civil
unions” is just marriage by another name. Much more than semantics,
the issue goes to the heart of the uniqueness of marriage. Marriage is
unique and is not just another voluntary relationship.
3. The opponents to this amendment claim that this amendment will curtail
the legitimate rights of unmarried persons. I want to make clear that
the rights currently open to unmarried persons will remain so if the amendment
is adopted. The Virginia State Board of Elections states clearly that
the amendment will not interfere with the legal rights of unmarried individuals
to make end-of-life decisions, bequeath property or own property as joint
tenants, nor will it hamper in any way the enforcement of Virginia’s
domestic violence laws. I conclude these observations on the marriage
amendment by stating that an institution as fundamental as marriage deserves
protection in a document as fundamental as our Commonwealth’s Constitution.
Yes, “Love of God and Love of neighbor: you can accept both or you
can reject both, but you cannot separate them or choose only one of them.”
Let us live as Christ’s disciples, loving God and loving neighbor
as ourselves every day until we see the God of love face to face in our
Copyright (c) 2006 Arlington Catholic
Herald
