30th
Sunday of Ordinary Time – October 25, 2020
Matthew’s Gospel now presents challenges to Jesus
by various leading groups among the Jews. Jesus had just put a group of
Sadducees to silence when he responded to their question about paying Caesar
taxes. “Pay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” They left baffled by this reply. Now it is some Pharisees who approach Jesus
with their own question, a question much debated among themselves: “Which is the greatest commandment of the
Law?” Unlike other encounters, there is not necessarily any malice in their
question. As a Rabbi, influential with the crowds and known by many as someone
with a mind of his own, they wanted to know the opinion of Jesus.
There were over 600 different laws. Much
time was spent in arguing over trivial details of observance. They were
nitpicking and failed to grasp the more important laws because of an
over-attention to all the details. This question is about going to the very
heart of the matter. Among so many laws, was there any one which touched the
core of people’s relationship with God? Was there one which summed up what the other
laws were trying to say? Jesus was a person who knew how to go to the heart of
the matter, as is clear from his response.
Jesus was asked only about the ‘greatest’ commandment of all the laws. His answer,
however, named the greatest and the second greatest commandment. For Jesus, the
greatest commandment, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind’, was inseparable from the second greatest
commandment, ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself’.
In focusing on the core of the Jewish Law
Jesus found it necessary to highlight two commandments. It seems that Jesus did
something very original here. He took two commandments that were in different
books of the Jewish Scriptures, the first commandment that you love the Lord
your God with all your heart, soul and mind, which is in the book of
Deuteronomy, and the second commandment, ‘you must love your neighbor as yourself’, which is in the book of Leviticus. Jesus
brought these commandments together in a way that had never been done before.
What is common to both commandments is that little word ‘love’. It is as if Jesus is saying, ‘if you really want to boil down what it is
that God wills for our lives, it is love’. Love is the center of the Jewish Law. It
is also, of course, the center of Jesus’ message.
There is only one “commandment” consisting of two inseparable parts. The
key word is “love” but there are really three loves involved: love of God, love of others
and love of self. Ultimately, love of God, the source of all being and life,
comes first. Then comes, as a natural outcome, love for all those in whom God
dwells and whom God creates. Because they are the objects of his love, they
must also be the objects of mine. Lastly, there is the love of self. I also am
worthy of being loved by God and others.
In that first commandment we are being
asked to give God first place in lives. God alone is to be loved with all our
heart, soul, and mind, all our being. This involves acknowledging our
dependence on God, recognizing how much we receive from God and then offering
all that back to God in love of others. In his first letter, John wrote: “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we
also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one
another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” One plus one plus one equals one. It’s not that Jesus doesn’t know how to add. In the Kingdom of God,
to love God, to love others and to love self are all based on the one
foundation: God has loved us first, even though we are sinners. God takes the
initiative. God loves us. This is the message of the Gospel that once we grasp
it, it can mean tremendous changes in our own lives in how we relate to God, to
others and to ourselves.
Fr. Don, C.P.