Homily for 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
31st Sunday of Ordinary Time

October 30, 1988

Deut 6: 2-6
Mark 12: 28-34
St. Theresa, Bronx

“Hear then, Israel, and be careful to observe all the statutes and commandments of the Lord your God, that you may grow and prosper the more, in keeping with the promise of the Lord, the God of your fathers, to give you a land flowing with milk and honey” (Deut 6: 2-3).

The passage from Deuteronomy introduces us to Jesus’ teaching about the greatest commandment, the commandment of love, viz. that we are to love God wholeheartedly and are to love our fellow human beings as we love ourselves. 

Jesus ties the commandment of love to participation in the kingdom of God. Deuteronomy ties it to the covenant between God and his people.  God called his people out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, and God bestowed upon them a bountiful land.  He asks for their fidelity to himself and to one another.

These concepts of covenant, long life in the land, love of God and neighbor are timely.  We ought to ponder them in the week before election day.

Our nation grew out of the covenant theology of the New England Puritans, based on the Bible.  They believed, and we believe, that God called us across the seas out of religious, political, and economic oppression and gave us a bountiful land in which we can be free.  He asks us for our fidelity to himself and to one another.

Our nation was founded on the Bible and on a deep conviction of human identity.  We express this religious heritage of ours in some of our most patriotic hymns.  E.g., you could read the lyrics of “America the Beautiful” or the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” which aren’t in the missalettes this month.

For over 350 years we’ve striven to be faithful to the covenant God has made with us as an American people.  In some ways, e.g. on civil rights, we’ve made great strides in our love for all God’s children.  In some ways, e.g. abortion, we’ve made vicious war on God’s children.

Now election day approaches. We have put before us a wonderful privilege and a solemn responsibility, the right and the duty to vote.  And I say plainly that voting is a moral obligation.  Whom we elect affects the quality of our society—the laws, the policies, the atmosphere.  A Christian who doesn’t vote is saying in practice that he doesn’t care about his sisters and brothers, doesn’t love his neighbor.

On Nov. 8 we’ll have the opportunity to elect a President, a senator, a congressman, state legislators, and judges.  Some of them have records on which we can judge their character and their values.  Most of them have taken stands on major issues.  You and I are obliged in conscious to evaluate them—and to vote accordingly, choosing the better of two candidates as best we can tell, or even choosing the lesser of two evils, if that’s how we see it.

Our bishops have suggested a number of important moral issues by which we should judge candidates.  Some of these issues are abortion, capital punishment, disarmament, employment, international debt, international trade, housing, civil rights, AIDS care and research.

These are human issues, love issues.  If we love our neighbor as we love ourselves, we have to weigh the candidates in these scales of justice, of peace, of human dignity.  If we don’t do that, if we don’t vote or if we vote carelessly, we violate our covenant with God and the heritage of our country.

In the hot summer of 1787—which was like the summer we had this year—55 men from 12 states closed themselves in the Pennsylvania statehouse.  With the doors and the windows closed, they secretly wrote a constitution for the U.S.  No one outside, not even the media, had a clue about what kind of a government would come out of that chamber.

When the work was done and the Founding Fathers emerged, a Philadelphia woman approached Benjamin Franklin.  “Dr. Franklin,” she asked, “what kind of a government have they given us?”  “A republic, madam,” he replied, “if you can keep it.”

It’s ours to keep by using our rights, by fulfilling our duty.  It’s ours to keep remembering that our country, its rights, its freedom, are rooted in God’s goodness to us.  We want leaders who realize that and respect that.  We want leaders at all levels of government who believe in human equality and the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for everyone.