Last night, Frances I. Malone, the Bishop of Shreveport, told this story at the confirmation mass. As a young child he would want to give his mother a gift and would ask her what did she really want? His mother would reply “I want you to be good and go find something to do.”
I think a lot of us may have been asked for that gift when we were young.
I can remember my brothers and I would ask my mother on her birthday or mother’s day what gifts would she like? She would say “I want your boys to be good and stop fighting each other.”
Momma tried to teach us right.
Today, we have Jesus’ words. The Pharisees, one of them a scholar of the law, are trying to catch Jesus saying something wrong. They asked him “what is the greatest commandment?”
Jesus answered, “You should love the Lord your God with all your heart; with all your soul; and with all your mind. This is the greatest commandment. The second is like it, “You should love your neighbor as yourself.”
That’s where our mothers got it.
Very simply to be good is to love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. It is the ultimate good.
One way to love God with all that we are is to go to confession. Confession helps us to acknowledge and speak the times we have not loved God. That is a simple truth about confession, because sin is our failure to love God.
When we go to confession we contemplate our life. And, the more often we go to confession, the easier it is to see how every day in little ways we disappoint God by our sin.
To love God is to be good. It is what the Bishop’s mother new. That is what so many of our mothers and fathers knew. My mother told me, be good. My dad told me and my brothers, all I want is for you boys to grow up to be good and holy young men.
And that is the greatest commandment. But there is also a second part, Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself. My mother said it simply - stop fighting.
Yet that seems to be all the world wants us to do. We fight as citizens of the world. We fight as citizens of this country. We fight as families. We fight as members of the Church.
This week Pope Francis made a statement about love. It’s a very controversial statement because he talked about love, homosexuality, and family. And there are different reports as to what he said. The English translation is stated to be different from his words in Spanish.
The Pope’s message is everybody needs love. But many peoples response is anything but love. Some have forgotten we are to hate the sin but love the sinner.
People considering themselves good Catholics speak with hate and venom towards Pope Francis whose teaching is on Jesus’ commandment to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
It is a teaching about recognizing each and every person no matter their sins as a child of God.
The greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart and our soul and all our mind. As a child of God, we are to love the Lord with all our strength for he is our refuge, our rock, our shield, our stronghold, and the horn of our salvation.
Christians are to imitate Christ by our life. We are to be Christ in this world for others to see by our lives, our actions, and our love. We are to bring the love of God to others in this world.
Nowhere in the gospel of Jesus Christ does he tell us not to love others; even if they are different.
No commandment tells us to hate others because they are different; but Jesus did tell us to bring God's love to others.
The only sin we are told that is unforgivable is a sin against the Holy Spirit. The greatest sin against the Holy Spirit would be not to love God with all that you are and to not the love of Christ, the Lord God has given to us through the Holy Spirit with one another.
As a country, people have forgotten how to love others. Many political leaders have forgotten how to love others. Those who bring violence and disrespect for the dignity of each and every human life have forgotten love. Sometimes, even believers have forgotten how to love.
Friends, the secret of loving others is to live the greatest commandment - love God with all that you are. We see how we fail to love God by confession.
Mothers had it
right when they said “be good.” That is why I say, “Be good, be holy, and
preach the gospel by the way you live your life and love one another. Amen”
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