Last Sunday‟s Gospel recounts the heart of our response to our All Powerful, All Just and All Merciful God whose LOVE gives, sustains and is the goal of our life, and every human life: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mk. 12:30-31.
We love God above all things and before all things because God the Father has given us every good gift through his Eternal Word, his Divine Son who was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary to become one with us, and to save us from the powers of hell through his suffering, crucifixion and death. Talk about love and humility.
Even more, at the Last Supper with his Apostles he gave us his very Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Holy Eucharist as he instituted the Catholic Priesthood so to order everything back to God through Christ by the gift of the Holy Spirit: “…Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, from now on I shall not drink this fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it with you new in the kingdom of my Father.‟ Then, after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” Mt. 26:26-30.
We are so blessed to have a vibrant faith community that goes back to our ancestors who founded our three churches upon the rock of our salvation, Jesus Christ and his Catholic Church: “Simon Peter said… „You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.‟ Jesus said to him in reply, „Blessed are you, Simon son of Jo-nah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld should not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. What-ever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven: and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Mt. 16:16-19
Let us rejoice in our Catholic faith that secures the saving grace for us when we live it with true sincerity, humble and grateful hearts! But does that mean that only Catholics or followers of Jesus Christ will be saved? After all, the Jews are still waiting for the Messiah, and the Muslims only think that Jesus was a great teacher or prophet, but not God.
St. Paul‟s Letter to the Romans helps us understand that God‟s Ten Commandments of life, love and true freedom are written by God on every heart, and those who knowingly and with full consent break the Commandments without repenting and seeking God‟s holi-ness will not see God, but will have freely chosen to live without God forever.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: for Jew first, and then Greek. For in it is revealed the right-eousness of God from faith to faith; as it is written, „The one who is righteous by faith will live.‟ The wrath of God is indeed being revealed from heaven against every impiety and wicked-ness of those who suppress the truth by their wickedness. For what can be known about God is evident to them, be-cause God made it evident to them. Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made.
“As a result, they have no excuse; for although they knew God, they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks. Instead, they became vain in their reason-ing, and their senseless minds were darkened… They ex-changed the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature [themselves!] rather than the creator… Therefore, God handed them over to degrading pas-sions.” Rom 1:16-26a.
We know God as the benevolent Creator through the light of reason and through the Old Testament, and thus give him thanks and follow his Ten Commandments. As well, we know God intimately through the light of our Catholic faith, and the Catholic Church‟s New Testament. For we know with the certainty of faith that God is one, but lives in the divine community of Father, Son and Holy Spirit: One God in three divine persons, who has re-deemed us by our Baptism which leads us to the Eucharist – the perfect thanksgiving and sacrifice of the Son of God who instituted the Holy Mass at the Last Supper be-fore his crucifixion.
In today‟s Gospel Jesus sits across from the temple treasury in Jerusalem pointing out to his disciples the sacrificial gift of a widow who gave, not from her surplus, but from her poverty – the widow‟s mite. “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.” Mk 12:43b – 44. What a great and humble act of faith.
This poor widow loved God, his Holy Commandments, and the Temple that he occupied. Jesus will re-ward heaven to Old Testament people and anyone like her who followed God‟s Commandments; but those who believe Jesus is the Messiah who established a new church on the completion of the Old Testament promises and the establishment of better promises, the New Testa-ment – they will attain more quickly the fullness of heaven as faithful members of the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church, for “… many that are first will be last, and the last will be first." Mk. 10:31.
Peace through Jesus Christ and Holy Mother Church,
Fr. Thomas McCabe
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