Carmelite homily for Friday, March 20, 2020 – Lectionary 24 (Mark 12:28-34)
In today’s Gospel we have ‘The Greatest Commandment’ – to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and body; and to love your neighbor as yourself. How do we do either one of these, though? They’re very high, very difficult, beyond human, aren’t they? To love God with everything? And to love your neighbor as yourself? To put your neighbor equal or even higher? How do we do this? Saint John of the Cross, I think, has the answer. He writes, “For as the love of neighbor increases, so does the love of God; and as the love of God increases, so does the love of neighbor.” It’s a perfect solution! It’s love! We love God, that enables us to love our neighbor, which then informs our love God, which then informs our love of neighbor, which informs our love of God. And it spirals higher and higher. So when we’re given this Great Commandment it doesn’t mean to do it now. I think it means do it and grow into it and spiral higher through a lifetime of love of God and love of neighbor.
