Oct. 31, 2021: 31st Sunday B

 Oct. 31, 2021: 31st Sunday B

As I drove around our neighborhood recently, I noticed some unusual decorations in the front yards, namely tombstones and skeletons. It’s a sign that Halloween is upon us. Sweet candies, funny costumes, outrageous yard decorations--it’s all humorous ways of dealing with a feared, if not dreaded, subject: death. Have you given some thought about what happens after you die? Have you purchased a plot or mausoleum crypt where you will be buried? Some number of years ago, when I was just newly ordained, among the packet of paperwork I received from the Diocese was a request to fill out my funeral plan: in which church do you want your funeral, who do you want to preach your funeral, which music do you want, and who do you want to be the pallbearers. That funeral packet inspired me to purchase a mausoleum crypt at St. George back in 2012, way before I was assigned to serve at St. George. 

Before I talk about preparing for our death and eternal life, I have to first talk about God’s love and our response to his gift of mercy. God sent his only Son into the world even when we were unlovable; God did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all. There can only be two basic loves; the love of God unto the forgetfulness of self, or the love of self unto the forgetfulness and denial of God. What is the greatest principle of life that we must strive toward so that we can respond to God’s love “unto the forgetfulness of self”? Perhaps that is the crux of what the Scribe was seeking when he asked Jesus, "Which is the first of all the commandments?" Jesus replied: "The first commandment 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 commandment is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 

Jesus’ first commandment is the command that Moses gave to the Israelites in the desert. The command is traditionally known as “Shema” prayer, and as good Jews, Blessed Mother, St. Joseph, and Jesus would have prayed this prayer three times a day. The ‘Shema’ prayer can be rephrased as daily reflection questions: Is God the one Lord of my life? Who or what are his rivals for my attention, for my ultimate concern? Does absolutely everything in my life belong to God? Do I even think of God during the day? Do I thank him for what I already have or am I preoccupied with what I have? 

The second commandment deals with the practical question of how we can love God whom we cannot see—“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” When we love someone, we also come to love what or whom they love. So if we want to love God, then we are to love everything and everyone that God has created for the sake of God.  

In this present time, a time of distress in which the normal of the past is lost and uncertain, what does it mean to love God totally and to love our neighbor? Who is our neighbor? When a Scribe asked Jesus that question, Jesus explained with a parable of a Good Samaritan. We all know the parable; a Samaritan man went out of his way to help a Jewish man who was left for dead from a robbery. The Samaritan man went out of his way, spending his money and time to help a stranger. A question to ponder is, ‘Do I make neighbors, or do I just pass by’?  

To love our neighbor is to show mercy. It is to act in kindness and generosity to anyone in need without regard to who they are or what they deserve and regardless of the personal cost to ourselves. Think of a person with whom we are angry with or in disagreement. Can we be a neighbor to them? What keeps us from going beyond ourselves to look for ways to show mercy and kindness to others? The majority of problems exist because we use the categories of “us and them.” Our tendency is to love ourselves too much and not look beyond to see others as our neighbor. The elderly who are abandoned in the nursing home, the sick who have no one to visit them, the untreated mentally ill who are in the streets with no home--the Lord will remind us of the situations in which we saw him in the poorest of the poor and we neither helped the person nor worked for systemic change.

This is the question that Our Lord will ask us, “Did you love?” This is the question that I have to ask myself everyday. I don’t like the answer some days because during some part of the day, I have not answered God’s call to love. This question is real to me especially when I pass by my mausoleum crypt here at St. George. It’s good to think about what happens to us at the end of life so that we can prepare ourselves. So what happens after death? Our Church teaches us that immediately after death, our soul separates from our earthly body and we stand before God for judgment. Our place of judgment will be how we lived Jesus’ two commandments--to love God and to love our neighbor. 

We all remember family members and friends who passed away and we have entrusted them to the mercy of God. There is a particular group whom we pray for at every Mass and especially during the month of November--the souls in Purgatory. Recently, a Catholic movie was playing in our area theaters called, “Purgatory.” St. Padre Pio was quoted in the movie stating that most of us will have to pass through Purgatory before reaching Heaven. For many, purgatory seems like an antiquated concept that no one believes in any more. Purgatory is a place of purification, for those who die in a state of grace and friendship with God but who are not yet fully purified. Those in Purgatory are assured a place in heaven after their purification. A practical act of love for a soul in purgatory is to pray daily for them. We can include them in our Rosary intentions or in our hearts when we participate in Holy Mass. For every soul in purgatory, prayer and grace is necessary to reach God. By praying for them, we obtain new intercessors who will help us to be faithful to God’s mission for us. 

-Fr. Yi