Please read the passage before the homily.
“What is the first commandment of the law?” The Jewish people of old used to discuss this question quite often. The scribe was sincere of heart. The first commandment, was it about the temple, or the king, or our neighbor, or God?
Jesus answered that the first commandment is that we love the Lord our God, and then our neighbors as ourselves. Love is the first of all the other commandments. If we do not love those whom we can see, we cannot love the God whom we cannot see.
Then, we can do anything we want provided that we love God? No, because our love for God is not an abstract love, but rather it must be concrete. The Israelites had to ritualize their love and their faith in the temple or on their sacrifices and after that to do their love and faith in their ordinary lives in their families and communities. We, likewise, have to ritualize our love and faith in the Church and, afterwards, in our homes, on our streets and in our communities to do love and faith in actuality.
At Mass, we pray for the whole of creation and for all people. We pray for “the Pope, the bishops, priests and deacons, the faithful near and far away, and all other people who seek the Lord with sincerity of heart. To love all the other people, we must also love our enemies. We have to ritualize our love, praying for people at Mass and helping them in our home, on our streets and in our communities.
Our nation has to show love by welcoming migrants, feeding the poor people of the world, and defending the oppressed.
We celebrate with familiar rituals events important in our communities. We celebrate births and their anniversaries, baptism, first days of school, graduations, the Fourth of July, and Thanksgiving. We have to celebrate our love for God and neighbors at Mass and in our daily lives.
We ought to celebrate our patriotism, for example, by voting in the lections this Tuesday. We out to celebrate our help for those in need by giving alms. We ritualize our relationships by pardoning friends and family.
The first commandment is that we love God and our neighbors as ourselves.