First Reading - Hosea 14:2-10
Gospel - Mark 12:28-34
The first reading is quite apt for us as we are through the season of Lent. The message of conversion or return springs up in the passage of the first reading. The prophet Hosea manifests a compassionate face of God through the passage. He emphasizes that God earnestly desires the repentance of the people. Furthermore, he also adds that the repentance of people is greatly matched with the mercy of God, restoration, and spiritual progress. It's engrossing to mark that forgiveness of God is described to be something that overshadows the brokenness caused by sin (It doesn't mean that our sins are ignored by God but it simply means that our repentance strikes out before God than our sins). Therefore, the passage concludes with the exhortation to act wisely and intelligently by returning to the Lord because 'repentance' or 'conversion' leads to a new life in God.
The gospel provides us with the ways or paths that lead us to God with a conversion or change in our life; the commandment of love. The episode of the dialogue between Jesus and the scribe makes it crystal and clear that the greatest of all commandments is rested on love; love of God and love of our neighbors. Certainly, we notice that a scribe approches Jesus with the intention to have a discussion with him. (A scribe was to be a knowledgeable person with his expertise of the Scriptures.) The question put to Jesus was indeed tricky because added to the 10 commandments Jews had 616 laws and to single out only one or two could have been indeed difficult. Jesus distills the most essential and important of all commandments: the commandment of love. In fact, Jesus summarizes that human effort should be to love God with one's whole being or above everything and to love one another as oneself. Finally, the scribe acknowledges true teachings of Jesus.
Dear friends, as a summary we can say that our efforts in our whole life should be to love God above everything and to love everyone as we love ourselves. The first reading invites us for a change in our lives: a change that leads us closer to God by our daily efforts to love Him and a change that helps us see every person as important and respectable as I am.
To love God and to love our neighbors or fellow beings is certainly challenging. It calls for real sacrifice from our side: a sacrifice of egoism, a sacrifice of envy, a sacrifice of hatred, a sacrifice of pride, a sacrifice of individualism, a sacrifice of consumerism, a sacrifice of any violence, a sacrifice of utilitarianism etc. It also demands a change in us by becoming loving, kind, gentle, simple, approachable, humble, faithful, devout etc. To live the life of love is a real U-turn in our lives. It's a real need of the time as well. Let's remind ourselves that our purpose of life must be directed in loving God and loving one another.
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