Abp. Aymond: 'Love God, love neighbor

At the annual Mass for victims and survivors of violence Sunday at St. Louis Cathedral, Archbishop Gregory Aymond offered a message of consolation and hope to families who have experienced such tragic losses. He said the summation of the law is to love God and to love neighbor. 

Not too long ago, someone asked me a question about an accident that I had witnessed. And, looking back on it, I realized that I went on and on and on and on with all the details.

Finally, that person, in their legitimate impatience said, “Could you please get to the point? We don't need all those details. Could you please get to the point?” That's what Jesus has asked in today's Gospel: “Get to the point!”

The scholar of the law is well aware of the 613 laws in the Jewish tradition. And he seems to say to Jesus, “In 40 words or less, summarize all of those laws – all 613. Summarize them.” And, without hesitation, Jesus does summarize the 613, and he says: “Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

What Jesus is saying is, “Let God love you. And if you let God love you, you will want to love him and you will want to love others.”

My sisters and brothers, this is God's hope and dream for each of us, for this world that he has created for us: That we can truly accept his love and return it and love our neighbors as ourself.

Every time someone else suffers – and sometimes most of the time we ourselves suffer – when we do not love and respect others, as God calls us to.

Today, as I mentioned at the beginning of our liturgy, we remember those who have not been loved and have not been respected and sometimes hated. They have experienced the extreme of having their own lives taken by someone else, and, unfortunately, that has become all too common in our world.

As we look at the wars and rumors of war everywhere around the globe, as we look at the lack of peace in the United States, and as we look at the murders and violence that we daily hear about on the news in New Orleans and beyond, our hearts are filled with a great deal of pain and loss and grief. It's terrible and extreme pain. 

I speak now to those of you who have lost loved ones or are survivors – the terrible pain, as you remember, someone whose life has been taken and left you with a broken heart. Today, we remember all of those people, parents, spouses, brothers and sisters, sons, daughters, grandchild, a family member, a coworker, a neighbor. So many people have been affected by violence. And when they are affected, others are.

Certainly, some here this morning and some who join us through television, media and livestream, say, “Well, I've never experienced that kind of violence in my life. I really don't know what it's like.” Thank God you haven't.

This Mass is an invitation to try for a few moments to walk in their shoes. And we can never really walk in the shoes of another, but we can try.

My friends, we remember today in this liturgy that to take another person's life is never, ever God's will. He says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” What is God's will and what is God's dream? That we will try to live in peace, that we will respect the life and the dignity of others, that we will not use guns in order to settle arguments, and that we will never act out of revenge. But sadly, we know that we live in a society that seems to have nowadays, at least in this country, an underlying anger and hostility about everything. It’s underlying. It seems to underlie so much of who we are and what we try to do.

This underlying anger is creeping around all the time. I believe it's an anger that leads to violence and to revenge and to disrespect for others.

May I suggest – as we come to pray today to better love our neighbor as ourselves and to let God love us – that there are three groups of victims that we pray for today? First of all, those whose lives have been taken by a gun or other means. They have lost their lives. Today, we come to remember them. Whether you have anyone particular in your life that you can remember or not, we remember all those whose lives have been taken. And we pray for them that they will know God's peace, that they will have eternal life in the kingdom of God, and that they will experience, finally, the peace that they did not experience in this life.

Secondly, there is another victim. We ask God's comfort upon all of you, on those whom you know, who have lost loved ones. In some ways, you have become a victim. Yes, you have become a victim of another person's hatred and their lack of respect for human life. I've met many. In fact, one of our priests lost both his mother and father at the same time as someone broke into their home to kill them. 

People like that and so many others live with grief that lingers – in broken hearts and loneliness and an emptiness in life. For those who experienced that victimization, we remember that Jesus – and only Jesus – is the healer. Jesus reaches out to those who have lost loved ones and comes to embrace those people, to comfort them. And if it's any of you, he touches your heart. As the grief continues – and it may go on for years – he not only touches your heart, but he tries to lighten the burden that is so heavy upon your heart. He wipes your tears. See him doing so. See him embracing you.

Thirdly, we also pray today for the victims of violence who have survived violence. Each and every one of them has scars that will always remind them of what happened. Sometimes those scars are physical. Sometimes they're emotional and very heavy. People who have survived violence often have flashbacks to frightening situations. They live with fear in nightmares, day after day. And once again, for them, Jesus is the healer. We pray for those who are survivors. We pray for your physical healing. We also pray that your heart will accept the consolation of God, that your heart will let go of some of the fears in time, that you will not have to relive the terror of the moment for the rest of your life.

Very often these survivors of violence also include those who have survived verbal violence, which can be so damaging, as well as sexual abuse, sexual violence, those people who experience violence, not with a gun, but with words or with acts that are indecent. We lift them to God for healing.

We know as we read the Gospel that Jesus walked the towns and the cities and he healed people. Does he not want to do the same today and does he not do the same today through the care of others, through those who have been victims of violence? Does he not say, “Do not be afraid? I have come to heal.”

We as a church, we as the people of God, want to reach out in prayer and in caring action to those who have lost loved ones and to those who have survived. And that is a mission for each and every one of us.

I also ask us today to remember in prayer those who are involved in law enforcement, who often, very often daily, risk their lives for the safety of others.

My sisters and brothers, I was well aware at the beginning of Mass, as we processed in, that this Mass for the victims and survivors of violence is different from any other Mass we've ever celebrated here. Usually, before the opening procession, many, many people who have known victims, many people who are survivors, walk in down that middle aisle with a picture, a photo of someone that they hold in their heart, whose life has been taken. And they go over to that side altar and place those pictures there as a reminder of the violence to the person and as a reminder of the peace that they ask for. 

We could not do that today because of the pandemic, but I would ask all of those who are victims, those who are survivors, those whose friends and family have been taken, find that picture of that special person. You may find it at home somewhere. The picture of that person is in your heart, deep in your heart. And Jesus reaches out to the hearts of those who are suffering. And he says, “I cry with you. I'm here to wipe your tears. This was not my will. It is sin. It is hostility and anger.”

And then he says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and find life burdensome, because I want to refresh you. Open your heart.”

My sisters and brothers, we don't have to know all 613 laws. Jesus is very clear. Let God love us and then we will want to love him, and as we love him, we will want to love one another and to respect him. Let us hold that law not just in our minds, but in our hearts – that God wants us to allow him to love us.

And when we do, we then will have the power to love God and to love others.