Thirty -First Sunday Nov 5^th, 2006

Deut 6:2-6 Psalm: 126: Hebrews 7 : 23-28 Mark 12: 28-34

1. It was Christmas, the year was 1643, in a dark street of Paris, a shabby man knocked on the door of the Jesuit house. It was late at night and the doorkeeper, thinking it was a beggar asked him to come to the back where the kitchen was located. But I want to see the Fr. Superior said the shabby man. He is already in bed. The shabby man said, I have just come from New France as Canada was called back in 1644. At the news about Canada, the doorkeeper opened the door immediately. Have you any news about our Father Isaac Jogues. I heard he was captured by the Indians. The shabby man held out his mutilated hands and said, I am Isaac Jogues.

The next year he returned to Canada. And if you asked him why he was returning to the place he had suffered so much, he would answer probably in the words of the Gospel today “I must love God with all my mind, with all my heart and with my whole soul. And I love my neighbour as well”

2. St. Isaac Jogues and I love God with our mind, our heart our soul and our strength. The difference is that he loved God with “ALL” - I have reservations, I define how far I will go ! And that is the difference between a saint - and the rest of us.

How often we look at the commandments as prison bars, ten more ways and means to make us miserable. How often we have said “if we are enjoying anything - it must be either fattening or against one of the commandments.” And yet it is so far from that. If you listen very carefully to Moses in the first reading. He is not the flaming firebrand of Michelangelo's painting - holding the ten commandments in his hands and two bolts of lightning coming from his head. Rather he is more like a big teddy bear - listen to him speak to the people of God “Hear O Israel.” You can picture him giving them hope and courage and urging them on like a mother would urge her child into kindergarten. Telling them everything will be OK.

3. “ Hear O Israel” - Keep the commands of the Lord and you will have a mighty God to protect you. He will take you out of the wilderness. He will lead you into a land of rich and plenty. You notice: it is described as a land with milk and honey. I was reading this to some little children and one say " Yuk " I would not want to go there, because I hate milk and honey is always so sticky . Both are phrases of showing a land rich with promise of a happy and secure future.

4. The commandments were something special as well. They were not just mere guidelines to get on well in society. They served that purpose it is true but they were much more than that. Here were a people who were wandering . They were a bit tired of being on the move for over forty years. However, they had no land, no identity and no security. But now God was willing to bind himself to them. God tells them keep my commandments and you will be called Israel, my chosen people. I will be you guide and protect you. I will make you grounds fertile, your cattle fat and you will have both land and identity.

5. And in one sense - they are so much like us. Here in Canada, we are always asking people where they have come from. The only time we say we are Canadian is when we play hockey and when one of the Sports team wins . We describe ourselves as Irish or Italian, Slovenian or Croatian, Polish, Hungarian or Asian. I was going to add Caribbean, but the Islanders do not care how you describe them as long as they can feel sand within their toes and hear the beat of soca or reggae music. In one sense we are like the people of Israel. The one thing that binds us together is our baptism -

a baptism by which we are made God's chosen people,

a baptism that gives us an identity as Children of God. Hence we have Jesus’ command “to love God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind.”

6. And therein lies the problem. Here in Canada, we are good people, kind and generous. There are murder reports and stories of violence. Yet it is both a safe and healthy place to live in. True we grumble about the weather, the taxes, the politicians, the church. But that I think that is in our nature. Even if God sent us a bunch of angels to govern us, we would still have something to complain about ! So the problem is that

God is not the first on the list,

God is not the #1 priority in our lives.

God is there, but he is fourth or fifth on the list:

God comes after Hockey, Baseball, The computer and Internet, God comes after the Young and the Restless, Coronation Street and the six o'clock news. Why do we do this to God, when God has been so good to us - even if we have cancer, unemployment, divorce or we are teenagers and cannot borrow dad's car. This is still the best country as far as opportunities, health, education and other things. It could be described as Moses did, as a land of milk and honey. So it is only right and just that we should at all times and in all places: Love God with all our hearts, with all our minds and with all our soul - and love our neighbour as God loves us. May we encourage one another to do the same and may God bless us all.

ALTERNATE BEGINNING:

When I was talking to the principal of the school (just across the yard) - he told me that they have zero tolerance of Violence of Drugs, of Racism - and as he talked, I could helped picturing Moses talking to the Israelites over 3 thousand years ago: Moses said “Hear O Israel” we have zero tolerance of

false gods

disrespect to one's parents

for murder, for adultery, for stealing.

The people listened because they had respect for Moses, the children listened because they have respect & perhaps a bit of fear from the principal and teachers. But fear can only go so far - there is a stronger force - and Jesus gives us that command today: Love God and Love your neighbour - man or woman.