Stiff Competition

Fostering competition in loving our neighbor

03/02/2020

Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus said to his disciples: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Yesterday evening I decided I better see what the competition is up to, so I visited one of the other bible study groups meeting here at I.C. And I gotta tell ya, the competition is stiff! It was a group of about 12 people studying The Bible Timeline with Jeff Cavins, and it was really great. Last night they were reading and reflecting on Luke chapters 9 and 10, and the parable of the Good Samaritan. In the hour-long video, Jeff Cavins was describing how love of God and love of neighbor are two sides of the same coin. That is, the way we prove we love God is by loving our neighbor.

We all know this every time we read 1 John 4:20, which says: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” I’ll never forget Scott Hahn saying once that if anyone wants to show their love for him, the best way would be to be kind to one of his six children. All parents get this instinctively: love my children and you show me love. Catching the love of parents and children immediately helped me to see the connection between love of God (the Father) and love of neighbor (God’s children).

Jeff Cavins told a compelling story of a Dominican priest who was giving a retreat to Mother Teresa’s nuns in Calcutta many years ago, while Mother Teresa was still alive. After a long hot day of teaching and preaching, he went to his room exhausted. As he sat on his bed, feeling pretty content and satisfied with his day’s labor, he became aware of a strong stench coming from the open window. Unable to stand the smell, he got up to close the window. He looked down and saw a naked man lying on the street below with a huge open and festering wound covering his torso. He closed the window and sat on his bed, but immediately started to feel guilty.

Just then he heard two women outside the window arguing. A younger woman’s voice said: “I’ll take care of him.” An older woman insisted, “No, I’ll take care of him.” The priest ran back to the window, opened it, and saw Mother Teresa had picked up the man and was hugging him close to her chest, and saying: “My sweet Jesus, I love you!” The Dominican went back to sit on his bed – and now he was really feeling guilty – when a knock came on his door. He opened it to see Mother Teresa standing there with the dying man in her arms. She asked, “Father, will you give this man a blessing before he dies?” The Dominican answered in a small voice: “Yes, Mother.” Then he took the man into his own arms, hugged him, prayed and blessed him. Mother Teresa taught in five minutes what the erudition of the Dominican priest stammered to teach in an entire day of lecturing. We cannot love the God whom we cannot see if we ignore or turn our back on the needy neighbor whom we can see. This is the real competition we should be engaged in: to show who loves their neighbor more, and that competition should be stiff.

Both scripture readings today hammer home the same lesson Mother Teresa modeled by her whole life: love your neighbor to show you love God. The two commandments are inextricably intertwined. Leviticus 19 is the core of the Holiness Code of the Old Testament. How do you know who is holy? We find the answer in Lev. 19:18, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” Holiness, therefore, is defined by love of neighbor. In Matthew 25, Jesus teaches that loving the least neighbor is really loving him. He explains: “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” As you know, Matthew 25 depicts the final judgement scene; consequently, Jesus’ teaching on loving our least neighbor has eternal consequences; it determines our eternal destiny.

Folks, as we settle into the first full week of Lent and our Lenten observances of prayer, penance and almsgiving, we should have a strong spirit of competition with each other. Not competition among who’s got the more popular bible study, but rather about who loves their neighbor more. And I am happy to report that competition is very stiff around here as I see week after week how generously I.C. parishioners respond to the needs of our neighbors not only around town but around the whole world. On behalf of Jesus’ least brothers and sisters, let me say “Thank you!”

Praised be Jesus Christ!