St. Dominic Catholic Church

Homilies

Let Love Win 2020-10-25 Fr. Roberto

Homily for 30th Sunday Ordinary Time – Year A
Fr. Roberto Corral, OP
St. Dominic’s Church, Los Angeles, CA
October 25, 2020 

Title: Let Love Win
Theme: True love always wins.
Readings: Exodus 22:20-26; 1Thessalonians 1:5c-10; Matthew 22:34-40

My oldest brother, Tony, died of a heart attack in 2017. At that point, he and my sister-in-law had been married for 57 years. Unfortunately, for the last ten years of their marriage, my sister-in-law suffered from Alzheimer’s. For the first seven years of her Alzheimer’s my brother tried to take care of her at home as best he could, but he eventually realized he could not give her the care she need. So, with great sadness, he had to send her to a care facility. For those last three years of his life, my brother went to see my sister-in-law in the care center every day even though, because of the Alzheimer’s, she sometimes got angry at him and sometimes yelled at him for no reason. Worst of all, sometimes she did not even know who he was. It really hurt him, but he still went to see her. Every day. My brother let love win in his life. 

I am sure that many of us remember the terrible news story a few years ago about Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old white supremacist who on June 17, 2015 entered an African-American church, in Charleston, South Carolina and shot and killed nine people, all African Americans, as they were praying and studying the Bible. It was a horrific hate crime. Two days later, at his first court hearing, some of the relatives of those victims went to the courtroom and told Dylann that, in spite of what he had done, they loved him and forgave him. One of them, a granddaughter of one of the victims, said, “Although my grandfather and the other victims died at the hands of hate, this is proof, everyone’s plea for your soul [today in this courtroom], is proof that they lived in love and their legacies will live in love. So hate won’t win.”  This young woman, and all those other relatives of the victims let love win in their lives. 

I truly believe that love is the most powerful force in the world; more powerful than any disease; more powerful than hatred and evil. My brother’s faithfulness and love for his wife was more powerful than her Alzheimer’s! It was not easy for my brother, but love won that battle. The relatives of those killed in the Charleston church shooting showed that forgiveness and love are more powerful than the hatred and evil that caused Dylann Roof to shoot their loved ones. I cannot imagine how hard it must have been for them to go to the courtroom that day and tell that young man that they loved him and forgave him. But they did, and, once again, love won that battle.

Jesus knew the power of love, and he knew that we were created by love, and that we were created to love by our God. That is why he made love the most important commandment for his followers, as he said in today’s Gospel: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind,” and “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” He did not make the most important commandment to go to church, to read the Bible or even to pray. The most important commandment Jesus gave us is to love God and to love others because he knew that if we get love right, if we put love first, then all the other commandments and teachings, all the other rules and regulations would fall into place in our lives. But he also knew that, on the contrary, if we don’t at least try to love, our faith, as deep as it might be, and all our religious observances would be useless.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is saying that we need both a vertical dimension of love for God as well as a horizontal dimension of love for our neighbor. Either dimension without the other is not authentic or complete Christian love. I would say that most of us are pretty good at the vertical part of loving God; the part that is usually the hardest is that horizontal part, isn’t it? Loving some of those darned people that God has put into our lives and into our world!

Let’s see, vertical love of God and horizontal love of neighbor – what image does that call to mind? The cross! Jesus showed perfect love on the cross. Jesus’ cross had a vertical piece that reminds us how intensely Jesus loved the Father. Everything Jesus did in his life was to bring the Father glory and to accomplish his will. And Jesus’ cross also had a horizontal piece which reminds us how much he loved us human beings: he loved us so much that he gave his life for us. I do not think it was an accident that the instrument of Jesus’ death is a perfect image of the love he had and the love we are called to have. Our love must mirror the love of Jesus; therefore, our love must mirror the cross: a vertical love for God and a horizontal love for others. That is the only way love will win – if it has both those dimensions.

Now you and I have to understand that if we love the way Jesus loved, we too are going to end up on our own cross. In other words, truly loving God and loving others is always going to cause us sacrifice and suffering. Just ask my brother. Just ask the relatives of the victims from that church in Charleston, or just think of any time you have truly loved God or someone else – at some point you had to pay a price of sacrifice and suffering to give that kind of love, right? But that is the only way love can win. 

So, I would like to ask all of you a question today: Is love winning in your life? Well, I would guess that in many ways it is because I am sure that every one of us here does something for love, probably more than once every day. Some of you here have loved or are loving in a heroic way. Like my brother, some of you are caring for one or more of your loved ones at great sacrifice to yourself. Like those relatives of the Charleston church members, some of you have forgiven or are trying to forgive people who have hurt you in the past. 

But, in addition to these heroic kinds of love, there are so many simple ways you and I can show our love for God and for others each day. For example, every time you get out of bed to go to work to provide for your family is an act of love. Every meal you cook, every load of laundry you do, every little act of kindness, every noble thought, every kind word – if it is done in love – is an act of love. Amen? Amen! And remember: every time you show your love for someone, you are also loving God. And the best way to show your love for God is by loving others, especially the people that are not easy to love. 

My brothers and sisters, if we want to follow Jesus, we have to be willing to pay the price of loving as he loved. If we are going to try to love God with all our heart, soul and mind and love our neighbor as ourselves, we have to be willing to experience the cross of sacrifice and suffering because that is the only way that love will win. Let love win in your life.