LOVING GOD IS LOVING OTHERS

LOVING GOD IS LOVING OTHERS

Sunday’s Gospel Reading from Matthew is also found in Mark and Luke. Most scholars consider Mark’s version the earliest. Asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus responds with the Shema from Deuteronomy: “Hear, O Israel!” Love God with your whole being.

But shema means more than hearing. In many biblical passages, hearing demands a response. To hear is to act. The question, then, is not simply whether we believe in God or profess our love for God. It is this: How do we love God? 

Here comes the answer we would rather avoid: We love God by loving our neighbor! 

Notice the singular “this” in the exchange between Jesus and the scribe in Mark and between Jesus and the lawyer in Luke. The scribe affirms that "this" matters more than burnt offerings and sacrifices. Jesus tells the lawyer, “Do this, and you will live.”

Not merely believe this. Not simply preach this. Do this.

What does loving God mean when an entire people cries out for freedom, dignity, justice, and the right to live in peace? Does this mean standing up for Palestinians whose homes have been destroyed, whose lands have been taken, whose families have been torn apart, and whose humanity is repeatedly denied? 

Jeepney hermeneutics invites us to read Scripture from the cramped seats of ordinary people, especially those pushed to the margins—not from the Rolls-Royces of the powerful like Trump, Netanyahu, and their ilk. We must always ask: Whose suffering does our theology ignore? Whose dispossession does our interpretations justify?

To use the Bible as a land title to legitimize the displacement, demonization, and destruction of Palestinians is to turn Scripture against the very neighbor God commands us to love. No theological claim can excuse the denial of another people’s dignity. No appeal to divine promise absolves us of our responsibility to pursue justice.

My friends, agape is not merely a feeling. It is a decision expressed in solidarity, resistance to injustice, and concrete acts of compassion. Every day, we choose whose lives matter.

To love God is to stand with our Palestinian sisters and brothers. We choose to take sides. We choose justice. We choose to serve people and planet!

#ChooseJustice

#FreePalestine

#JusticeForMyanmar

#LoveGodServePeople

#NoToPaxSilica