Thursday in the Ninth Week of Ordinary Time

2nd Letter of Saint Paul to Timothy 2:8-13

Beloved: Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David: such is my Gospel, for which I am suffering, even to the point of chains, like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained. Therefore, I bear with everything for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, together with eternal glory. This saying is trustworthy: “If we have died with him we shall also live with him; if we persevere we shall also reign with him. But if we deny him he will deny us. If we are unfaithful he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.”

Mark 12:28-31

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus replied, “The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”.

We find a couple of mysteries in the two readings today.

The words “If we deny him he will deny us” seem clear enough.  St. Paul, writing from prison in Rome to St. Timothy, probably in Ephesus at that time, speaks of the Lord Jesus condemning the wicked on the Last Day.  As the Lord himself says: “But he that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10, 23).  That is, those who deny the Lord and do not repent of it.  We deny the Lord when we are persecuted and give up our faith under pressure.  But we also deny him when we sin publicly or condone or excuse sin and give scandal thereby.  Further, we deny him by making some thing our god and worshipping it instead, as through lust and gluttony.  The keys to preparing ourselves against temptations to deny our Lord are living lives of penance and prayer.  By living simply, in penance, we avoid things that could gain a hold on us.  By prayer we acquire the virtues with which to persevere in our faith in Jesus.  But to those of us who do deny the Lord, Paul says, “He will deny us.”  To be “denied” by Christ means to be condemned to the fires of hell.

Again, clear enough.  But then Paul adds, “If we are unfaithful he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.”  This sounds like a contradiction of the first statement.  If the Lord denies us, how can it be said that he is “faithful” to us?  In fact, the love and the faithfulness of Jesus the Lord is unconditional.  He will not cease to love us if we cease to love him.  Nor will he cease to be faithful to us — that is, pleading for us before the Father and sending us inspirations through the Holy Spirit and our guardian angel to draw us back to him.  Even after the death of the sinner, the Lord continues to love him, and his love is such that he respects human free will and allows one obstinate in his sin, to walk away.  The “denial” spoken of here is a figure of speech meaning exactly this, that the Lord will allow a person to walk into hell if he so chooses. 

The mystery in the second reading appears in the second of the two Great Commandments: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  At first sight, Jesus seems to mean that we should love our neighbors to the extent that we love ourselves, but this is not so.  What he means simply is that we should love our neighbor.  That is, we should love him, as opposed to hating him or envying him.  Although we find this commandment in the Law of Moses, Jesus raises it to second place after that concerning the love of God.  Now, after the love of God, our primary love ought to be for ourselves, who are passionately, madly, loved by God.  Our love for others must come after that.  Otherwise, it might be the case that we lose our own salvation in order to save another’s.  Also, God has created us in such a way that we have people in our lives for whom we have varying levels of responsibility.  First, there is our immediate family: our parents and brothers and sisters until we are married, and after marriage, coming before these, are our spouses and children.  Following immediate family comes other family members, such as grandparents, aunts, and uncles.  Then come friends, the closer ones more than mere acquaintances.  Finally, there are the people we do not know.  While we love them all, we love them differently, and prudence tells us how to act towards them, for it may necessary to avoid certain persons or even seek justice against them out of love for ourselves or others, including society at large.

We do our best, as those who bear the name of Christ, to imitate his faithfulness and love, with the help of God.