Choosing the One True God and His Will for Us

In today's first reading, Hosea 11: 1-4a, 8e-9, the Lord confronts His people for placing strange gods before Him: "When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the farther they went from me, sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in my arms; I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like the one who raises an infant to his cheeks; Yet, though i stooped to feed my child, they did not know that I  was their leader."

The Israelites abandoned God and followed other nations in their worship of false gods.  They wanted a king, rejecting God as their king, and fell into idolatry like so many others around them.  We, too, have a tendency to worship idols: wealth, pleasure, sex, consumerism, materialism, power and control, technology, TV, entertainment--anything that we allow to consume our attention and occupy our time above God is idol worship.  With what, we need to ask ourselves, do we spend most of our time to the extent that we do not take time to pray, to study the Scriptures,  to meet out responsibilities to build up God's Kingdom on earth, to foster unity among those with whom we live, to save those suffering starvation--starving physically, emotionally, spiritually, socially--in ways we are able to bring relief?  To and from what do I seek comfort and peace more than I do from God, my Creator?

Let us heed the words of today's responsorial psalm: "Let us seek your face, Lord, and we shall be saved"(Psalm 80) from our misguided pursuit of happiness in place of seeking happiness in You above all!  Save us, Lord, from pursuing security in accumulating more and more material things, in increasing excessive wealth, that crowds out our awareness of You and of our responsibilities to love
others as we truly love ourselves and to love them above material comforts.

Fulfillment of the Law of Love: Jesus' Example and our Challenge

Today’’s Gospel, Mt. 5: 17-19,  opens with Jesus  saying to us:  “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law…I have come not to abolish but to fulfill….”  In Luke 10:27, a rich young man wants to know what he needs to do to inherit eternal life and Jesus  asks  him:     "What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?" The rich young man replies:  YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.,"    Jesus replies,   "You have answered correctly; DO THIS AND YOU WILL LIVE."

Jesus fulfills the law, loving God the Father with his whole heart, with all his soul and with all his strength and with all his mind and his neighbor as Himself. He fulfills the law and teaches us to do the same.

Am I following Jesus’ footsteps? Do I realize that the reason I am here is to fulfill the law of love, beginning with love of self. If I do not love myself, I am not capable of loving others. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” the commandment says!  If I hate myself, if I disdain myself, if I am agitated with myself, if I put myself down, am not pleased with myself, my self-hatred, self-anger, self-disgust, self-dissatisfaction will be projected on to others. I will relate to others negatively, jealously, enviously. I will not be able to rejoice in others if I am not capable of rejoicing in self.  “Do unto others as you do unto yourself.”  “Love others as you love yourself.”