Oct. 26, 2014 Homily by Fr Mathew 30th Sunday

“He had a blank stare”

Ex 22:20-26; I Thess 1:5-10; Mt 22:34-40

In 1960s, a Catholic survey was done in which the participants were asked this question: : What's the more important in your Catholic faith:  love your neighbor, or give up meat on Friday? More than 50 percent responded, "Give up meat on Friday." When meatless Fridays trump love of neighbor, we Catholics are in deep trouble.

Today’s readings reveal what is more important in our faith: They tell us unequivocally, love of God and love of your neighbor.

God has given us two hands: one to hold onto God and one to reach out to his people. If our hands are full of struggling to get possessions, we can't hang onto God or to others very well. If, however, we hold onto God, who gave us our lives, then his love can flow through us and out to our neighbor.

The summarized two commandments imply three principles: The First one the love of your neighbor. Who is your neighbor? Anyone in the world could be your neighbor. Most of us are inclined to love those who are good to us. There is nothing heroic in that kind of love. We love our parents, children and grandchildren and also our friends who are good to us. Anybody does that. Even the Mafia does that. We are just practicing a popular principle," you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." There is nothing christian in it.

That is not the kind of love that Jesus is talking about when he tells his disciples to love their neighbor. You must have heard the story about a man named Autrey. He rescued a man who fell to the tracks while he was waiting for the subway train in New York with his two little daughters. Mr. Autrey rushed to help,

As he was trying to rescue him, the headlights of the No. 1 train appeared. “I had to make a split decision,” Mr. Autrey said. So he made one, and leapt.

Mr. Autrey lay on the victim between the tracks, his heart pounding, pressing him down in a space roughly a foot deep. The train’s brakes screeched, but it could not stop in time.

Five cars rolled overhead before the train stopped, the cars passing inches from his head, smudging his blue knit cap with grease. Mr. Autrey heard onlookers’ screams. “We’re O.K. down here,” he yelled, “but I've got two daughters up there. Let them know their father’s O.K.” He heard cries of wonder, and applause.

That night he went to visit the victim up in the hospital before heading to his night shift. “I don’t feel like I did something spectacular; I just saw someone who needed help,” Mr. Autrey said. “I did what I felt was right.”

This story explains who your neighbor is. This incident also explains the meaning of genuine love for our neighbor. The Man risked his life for someone whom he has never met in his life. This is called agape love. The greatest example of agape love is on the cross.

You cannot love your neighbor if you don't love yourself. Jesus says that you got to love your neighbor as yourself. Have you ever seen people who are negative, sour and bitter in their lives? Nothing can please them. They are critical of everybody and everything.  In fact what we see and experience about these people is called in psychology “self-projection.”  They don't love themselves. They are unhappy about their life. They are projecting their own mental condition in negativity in their interaction with others.

Lack of self-esteem and feeling of not being loved have become an epidemic among us.  How can we overcome our lack of self-worth and low self-esteem.?  Unless we find God who loves us unconditionally, it is very hard to believe in ourselves and our self-worth.

You heard the news yesterday:  This was the title of the news: Two Dead, Including Gunman, in Washington High School Shooting.”  “Fryberg was a popular student", CNN reports, "who played football and was named as the high school’s freshman homecoming prince.”

What is wrong with this boy who killed people? He had everything. I am sure he is not any different from any other typical student from a typical family in Mattawan who prided in sports and extracurricular activities more than anything else.

Time ended the article, “He had a blank stare,” one of the students said. “He was just staring at the victims as he shot them.”

Many of us will have blank stare if we don't experience God and embrace God's unconditional love. The blank stare is going to persist on us in the midst of everything until we experience  God’s loving embrace.  Unless we love God and love ourselves, we cannot love our neighbor.

Some critics of Pope Francis point out that he really isn't teaching anything new. I agree, but would also say that Francis has prioritized some of our oldest teachings. He has a new top 10 list, and, even more striking, he's actually living it. With a straight face he can repeat Paul's statement, "[Be] imitators of us and of the Lord."