Take care

A homily for the Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 31, 2021

Dt 6:2-6, Heb 7:23-28, Mk 12:28b-34

Let’s imagine for a minute that it’s Christmas, and we’re 10 years old.

Our favorite uncle has given us the bicycle we’ve been dreaming about — shiny, painted in a red-and-gold sunburst, custom seat and no training wheels.

We throw our arms around Uncle Joe and say, “Thankyouthankyouthankyou!” about a hundred times.

We grab our coat, wheel our prized new bike out into the December chill — which we don’t feel at all — and pedal around the block a few times.

Just like Ralphie in the movie, this is the best present we ever got or would ever get.

But now it’s Easter, and Uncle Joe is coming over for dinner, the first time he’s been able to visit since Christmas. And as he’s coming up the walk, he sees the bike lying on the lawn, rusty, with a flat tire and a loose chain.

Those thank-yous from us back in December are ringing kind of hollow right about now.

Whatever happened to “The best present we ever got or would ever get”?

When he saw what happened to his gift, was Uncle Joe sad? Mad? There’s no way he was glad.

And after he saw the bike in that condition, there had to be some hard feelings between us and our supposedly favorite uncle.

Now, the lesson of our little fable is this:

The way to maintain and strengthen a relationship with someone who gives us a lot of precious gifts is to care for those gifts. That’s how we show our appreciation. That’s how we show our gratitude. That’s how we show our love.

And no one has given us more gifts than God — Father, Son and Holy Spirit. No one has given us more from a boundless reservoir of love.

First and foremost, our Creator gave us … us. Ourselves. Our very lives. Every day of life here on Earth. Our bodies and souls, with the promise of eternal life.

God gave us each other: family, friends, billions of brothers and sisters we haven’t met yet. God gave us the universe, the sun shining on our faces. God gave us this beautiful, fragile planet, with animals and plants and oceans and mountains and, yes, medicine and science and high technology.

Right from the beginning of God’s human experiment, he commanded us to take care of all our gifts. Perhaps the world leaders who are gathering in Scotland to remedy climate change will obey that commandment fully. We can only pray.

Closer to home, though, we can cling tightly to the two commandments that Jesus recited to the scribe, the Jewish religious leader. By obeying those, by building our very lives with them as our foundation, we strengthen our bond of love with God, the source of all that is good.

… By the way, not to challenge Our Lord’s math, but we’re actually discussing two-and-a-half commandments here.

Love God.

Love your neighbor

… as yourself

To love God, we praise his works and express boundless gratitude. And unlike our imaginary 10-year-old selves, we say thank you by taking care of our gifts.

Starting with ourselves.

No, that’s not selfish. It’s self-respectful.

Because if we don’t care for ourselves, we can’t care for anyone else.

And because caring for ourselves is the link between the Two Great Commandments.

All of us know how we want to be cared for, so we have a starting point for how we should care for others. That means food, shelter, health, freedom to use the gift of free will, and freedom to pursue happiness however we define it, as long as it does not harm anyone else.

Because we have received the gifts of intellect and curiosity, we care for others by learning about who they are, how they live, and how they see the world. Because, of course, we can never be anyone except ourselves, as wonderful a gift from God that is. So, in that vein, we care for our neighbors as they themselves want to be cared for. We never try to remake them in our image, because they already have been created in God’s image.

Love God.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Beautiful, simple, yet so, so deep and so profound.

Love God.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

They fit on a bumper sticker or a card we can carry in our pockets.

They fit in the depths of our souls and in our heart of hearts.

Love God.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

For the love of God.