Weekly HOMILY for October 23, 2011: The Cross As a Vertical and Horizontal Reality

30th Sunday of the Year, Cycle A
St. Margaret Church and St. Mark Church
October 23, 2011

The Cross As a Vertical and Horizontal Reality
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


EINSTEIN

On one occasion, Albert Einstein was asked to explain his theory of relativity. The great physicist replied that the simplest explanation of relativity he could think of was this.

When a boy spends an hour with the girls he loves, if feels like a minute. But when that same boy is compelled to sit on a hot stove for a minute, if feels like an hour.

And so, to explain a complicate theory, Einstein went back to something very basic. Now, what Einstein did there helps us to appreciate today’s gospel.

Some of the religious leaders ask Jesus, “What is the greatest commandment of the Law?” It isn’t an easy question, because in the Judaism of Jesus’ time, there were 613 commandments.

Well, like Albert Einstein, Jesus cuts through to the most basic of all those commandments.

He takes 613 and answers with two commandments: “To love God” and “To love our neighbor.” And Jesus says that these two are the most basic and the most important because they both (1) Summarize every other law of the religion and (2) All the others can be found within these two.

It seems that the laws and teachings of the synagogue of Jesus’ time and of our church today have become as complicated as Einstein’s theory of relativity.

To help us understand the meaning of both these commandments and their connection, I suggest that we simply look at another basic: and that is the shape of a cross.


THE VERTICAL BEAM

The construction of a cross has something interesting to say. I would suggest that the first commandment represents the vertical beam of the cross. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

Now, if we are to love God sincerely, we need to realize that (1) God has first loved us and that he has loved us unconditionally.

The scripture says that, (2) “God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son.” And in another place, (3) “The love of God consists in this: not that we have loved God, but that God has first loved us.”

God loves us by giving us life, and family, and friends as well as the necessities and comforts of life. And beyond that, God loves us by forgiving us and offering us salvation, even when we sin.

With that gratitude as a base, we in turn love God with humble hearts and prayers.

So, God’s love for us, or our realization of that love, empowers us to love God in return. It constitutes the supportive vertical beam of the cross.


THE HORIZONTAL BEAM

Secondly, I suggest that this love of God for us and we for God is the basis, the foundation, for the horizontal beam of the cross, which is our ability to then love our neighbor.

Let’s look at it this way. We cannot write paragraphs and essays in school until we are first able to write the alphabet and know the rules of grammar. If you are to have any skill at writing, you simply have to learn the basics first.

In the same way, we cannot truly love our neighbor (arms horizontally), until we have learned the basics of love from God (arms vertically.)

That love, God’s love for us and our love for God in return, empowers us to love others even when they do not seem to deserve it – even when they have hurt or wronged us in some profound way.

So the vertical beam of the cross makes the horizontal beam possible; it holds the horizontal beam in place; it sustains it.


CONCLUSION

When the Lord tells us to love our enemies, he gives us, along with the command, the love itself.

You don’t have to be a contractor or even a carpenter to know you can’t construct a cross without first having the vertical support.

What makes you think you can forgive someone who’s wronged you, or someone who has proclaimed themselves your enemy without first knowing the love of Jesus?

Perhaps that’s why forgiving is so difficult, we haven’t experienced the love and forgiveness of Jesus of us.

That’s the place to start, not just in building a cross, but in understanding the cross of Jesus in our lives.