Thirty First Sunday, Ordinary Time, November 3, 2024
From the Deacon’s Desk Reflection on Today’s Gospel Reading
What Does It Mean to Love God with Our Whole Heart?
Loving God and loving our neighbor with our whole heart is more than just having positive emotions about them. I'm reminded of all the weddings I've performed in which I've said to the bride and groom, "Jane, will you love John?" and "John, will you love Jane?" Not, "Do you love?"
Feelings. Nothing more than feelings? Loving God with your heart means bringing everything to God. The heart in Hebrew and N.T. Understanding is the home of emotions, also of decision making. It is the home of caring, but also of character, commitment, creativity, and carry-through. To love God with your whole heart means to love God with everything you've got! Here are some examples of what the Bible has to say about what the heart is and what it does:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Blessed are the pure in heart.
Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds (Ps 9:1).
God knows the secrets of the heart (Ps 44:21).
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Ps 73:26).
Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart (Deut 6:4-5).
You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem on your forehead (Deut 11:18).
The scribe comes today to give Jesus his heart. In this action, he shows himself to be a better disciple than the disciples. In Mark, the disciples don't love Jesus with their whole hearts. They love themselves and seek prestige. But other people actually do a better job of following Jesus' words, including those who seek out the Savior and bring him their whole hearts with contents good and bad. They are the paralytic's friends who make a hole in the roof to lower their friend to Jesus (Mark 2). They are the poor troubled man living among gravestones in Gerasene who ran to Jesus and cried out to him in his torment (Mark 5). They are the woman who brings a jar of alabaster ointment and anoints Jesus with sweet perfume (Mark 14). They are the scribe who is supposed to know everything, but comes to Jesus with his question—not to trick him, but to find out the answer so he can build his life around it.
How are we doing in giving Jesus our hearts? Are we just caught up in some nice, fuzzy, feelings, and when we have to make the decision whether or not to love God and neighbor when we really don’t feel like it, do we make the selfish choice? Making the decision to love God and neighbor no matter what, no matter how it affects us, is one way that we can bring Jesus Christ to those around us who are lost. When this becomes our natural way of life, God gives us the grace to automatically make the decision to love even when doing so may cause us suffering, ridicule, and rejection.