November 3, 2024 (31st Sunday in Ordinary Time)
/“Algorithm of Love”
by Fr. Dominic DeLay, O.P.
[This is the text composed by the homilist prior to delivering the homily.]
What leads you to things you never knew existed, taking you, if you let it, further and further from where you started until you’re watching cats doing brain surgery or until you’re radicalized? YouTube’s algorithm? Yes, but also the Algorithm of Love. And I’m not talking about the Stanford Pact. The Algorithm of Love is 100% effective.
The scribe in today’s gospel, a scholar of the law, consults the upstart startup search engine, Jesus: “Which is the first of all the commandments?” The divine search engine’s response:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
And just like that, we’re given the core code of the Algorithm of Love. The answer isn’t surprising, but the oracular, proclamatory style of the response prompts action over further casual browsing: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!” And the Greek love here isn’t a feeling – it’s not a mere, virtual like – it’s a very real action. Does the scribe – do we – dare follow this algorithmic path, not knowing where it will lead? Will we become love radicals?
Heart, soul, mind, strength. But how do we love God in each of these ways? The Greek heart is not merely the center of our feelings but also of our thoughts. Our heart is our center. How do we love God with the complete center of our being, and where might that lead us? The Greek soul is the breath or spirit. How do we love God with all our breath, and where might that lead us? The Greek mind is the place of deep thinking. How do we love God with all our deepest thoughts, and where might that lead us? The Greek strength is about power and might. How do we love God with our entire might, and where might that lead us? Heart plus soul plus mind plus strength.
One of our undergrads suggested to me that this kind of total love might involve knowing God’s love language. How does God want to be loved? It turns out that scripture gives us plenty of suggestions from God on how to love God. Over and over the scriptures tell us that God doesn’t want sacrifice and burnt offerings, empty acts of piety:
Sacrifice and offering you did not desire—but my ears you have opened…I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart. (Psalm 40:6) The sacrifice you desire is a repentant heart, O God. (Psalm 51:17)
Open ears, doing God’s will, repentance. We love God by relying on God, letting God guide and empower us, turning to God in prayer. We love God through our prayers of thanks praise, petition, and adoration.
Jesus has revealed the algorithm of total love for God, but he codes an extension: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” It’s no mere touchy-feely, navel-gazing thing to say that we need to make sure to love ourselves, to note that many of us would be doing harm to our neighbors if we loved them the way we love – or rather, don’t love – ourselves, pushing ourselves, blaming ourselves, putting ourselves down, not eating or sleeping enough, not exercising our body or spirit or imagination or hope. Gorging on election predictions and returns until we’ve worked ourselves into a frenzy of fear and anger. We treat ourselves like machines, forgetting that we can’t merely recharge and restart.
How do we love ourselves? Mercy is a good start. And what’s your love language? What do you need and desire? I imagine it includes some sleep, nourishment, exercise, play, and prayer.
What does loving our neighbor look like? Jesus’ code extension isn’t new in itself – he’s quoting Leviticus. But he’s creatively combining love of neighbor with love of God. Also, Leviticus was merely talking about loving one’s own people. But we know that Jesus calls us to love everyone as our neighbor. Jesus asks us to be a neighbor to the Samaritans in our lives. This particularly challenging election season gives us many opportunities to love Samaritans, those who are different from us. How do we love those most in need with our vote? And how do we love fellow voters that we vehemently disagree with? Have we still not listened to them to learn their true thoughts, values, and fears? “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” God insists (Hos 6:6). Who needs your mercy right now?
There’s more: the algorithm of love carries a deep, invisible code, God’s love for us. Jesus most clearly and powerfully expresses the love that prompts our love when his love for us leads to his death.
The best way we can love God is by resting in this indescribable love of God for us. We love God by letting God love us. We love God by giving ourselves fully to God. We love God by trusting that God has already established the kingdom of love, which ultimately heals whatever we get wrong in the election and our other high-stakes pursuits. We love God by living in hope not fear or despair. Fear and despair paralyze us or prompt us to violence. Hope fuels loving action that creates real change in the world.
We love God by letting God love us and by loving ourselves and our neighbor. Yet we do none of this by our own powers. When we love our neighbor, it is God loving through us. God is at the center of our being, our heart. God’s Spirit is our breath, our soul. God’s deepest thought, Jesus, guides our deepest thoughts. God’s strength is our strength in Christ. God powerfully loves our neighbor through our God-reliant weakness.
Where does the Algorithm of Love lead? The scribe affirms Jesus’ insight, and Jesus in turn affirms his: “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” Simply to acknowledge the truth of God’s algorithm of love brings us close to the kingdom of God. And, with the broad band of God’s Spirit of love breathing within us, we merely take the first step in the algorithm – we receive God’s love for us – and find ourselves immersed in the kingdom of love. Where will this algorithmic journey take us? The result is multivalent. Living the Algorithm of Love takes us from result to result, moving us ever deeper into the realm of love.
