June 9 | Pentecost 3, Year B
1 Sam. 8:4-11 (12-15), 16-20 (11:14-15) or Gen. 3:8-15
Ps. 138 or Ps. 130
2 Cor. 4:13-5:1
Mark 3:20-35
We are called to love our neighbor as ourselves. In practice, we will get this wrong if we love ourselves inadequately, or excessively, or inordinately. Moreover, the voice of the enemy within us, a clear and sharp and strident voice of self-loathing, may mean that we fain love while harboring hatred toward everyone. What is proper self-love, and how should love flow out toward the world and our neighbors?
To begin, we are the beloved children of God, and despite our failings and sins, God has come to our rescue, preeminently so in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Indeed, to quote a beloved verse, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16). We are each the infinite object of God’s infinite love. The love that God extends to one individual is the same love God extends to all.
Are we to love every person in precisely the same way? Obviously, we cannot and should not. There is a love that children owe to their parents, a love that parents owe to their children, a love that siblings owe to each other, a love that friends share together. The more intimate and smaller the group, the more intense and obligatory the love. Thus, as we move further out into the world and human community, the love we owe will look more like duty, being less emotionally intense. In every relationship, however, whether intimate or more distant, love must constantly adjust to circumstances and context
The most intimate community of love, the family, makes a special claim upon our lives. Put simply, children owe a debt of love and gratitude to their parents that they can never adequately repay. Parents give their lives for their children. So, it is right and good that love is deep and strong in the home. Is there, however, a danger here? Yes! Intense love can create an allegiance that pits family against family, tribe against tribe, and community against community. Love, even when just and good in some measure, can miss the mark if it becomes unduly insular, defensive, and fearful toward the outsider.
Jesus addresses this problem in language that seems (note: seems!) to be against the family. In truth, however, he is creating a new and more expansive family. Listen to these difficult words: “Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’ And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers!’ Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother’” (Mark 3:31-35).
In a similar way, the marriage rite affirms the unique and special love that the bride and groom have for each other, and then says that marital love may expand in the gift of children and to the wider community. “Give them such fulfillment of their mutual affection that they may reach out in love and concern for others.” Marriage and family do not shut the bride and groom off from the world, but rather provide a base of support and love, allowing their love to expand and embrace.
Love your family. Love the human/ecclesial family, too.
Look It Up: Acts 17:26
Think About It: Humanity derives from one God and one Ancestor.