30th
Ordinary Sunday (Year A)
First
Reading: Exodus 22:20-26
Second Reading: 1
Thessalonians 1:5c-10 Gospel
Reading: Matthew 22:34-40
“TEACHER,
WHICH COMMANDMENT IN THE LAW IS GREATEST?”
There
is a natural, logical kind of loving that loves lovely things and
lovely people. That's logical. But there is another kind of loving
that doesn't look
for value in what it loves, but that creates
value in what it loves. Like Rosemary's rag doll.
When
Rosemary was three years old, she was given a beautiful little rag
doll, which quickly became an inseparable companion. She had other
toys that were intrinsically far more expensive, but none that she
loved like she loved the rag doll. Soon the rag doll became more and
more rag and less and less doll. It also became more and more dirty.
If you tried to clean the rag doll, it became more ragged still. And
if you didn't try to clean the rag doll, it became dirtier still.
The
sensible thing to do was to trash the rag doll. But that was
unthinkable for anyone who loved Rosemary. If you loved Rosemary, you
loved the rag doll too - it was part of the package. “Love
me, love my rag dolls,”
says God, “including the one
you see when you look in the mirror. This is the first and the
greatest commandment.”
Today
is the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time and just as we enter
into the final phase of the Ordinary Time, the Scripture Readings of
today remind us of what is most important. It is the commandment
to love. The First Reading from the Book of Exodus assures
us of the Lord’s compassionate stance for the needy and vulnerable.
He cares for the foreigners, the widows and orphans, and the poor. He
defends them because of his merciful nature as God. Just as the Lord
is kind and merciful to the poor and needy among us, so must we be.
The Second Reading from St Paul's 1st Letter to the
Thessalonians, illustrates the dynamics of love at work in the early
Christian community in Thessalonica. Having experienced the saving
love of Christ preached and witnessed to them by St. Paul and his
companions, they opened their hearts to the Gospel and imitated their
Christian example. Moreover, the life that they lived by the power of
the Holy Spirit enabled them to spread their loving faith in God to
surrounding places. In the Gospel Reading from St. Matthew,
Jesus is asked for the greatest of the commandments. He does
not say that it is 'love of God'
alone, but adds 'love of neighbor'
to it. Jesus gives them both. He is asked for one commandment and
answers with two. Perhaps an indication that he saw them as one and
the same thing. To love God is to love one's neighbor. One cannot
claim to love God and not care for others. By radically connecting
the love of God with the love of neighbor, Jesus brings in a new
teaching.
COMPASSIONATE
STANCE OF THE LORD FOR THE VULNERABLE:
The
First Reading from the Book of Exodus, tells us of the loving
relationship that the Israelite people ought to have towards those
under-privileged and vulnerable. The three issues touched on here
concern groups of people who would have been particularly vulnerable
in the socioeconomic system of the tribes following their settlement
in Canaan. Resident aliens, widows and orphans, as well as the poor
who had to borrow to survive, were all 'at
risk'
populations within a social milieu in which one's welfare and
security depended upon being a property owner or at least being or
having a breadwinner to provide for the household. Of particular note
is the way the text connects its social policy imperatives both to
Israel's own history and to the very nature of God. The Israelite
people had been treated compassionately by a God of love in their
times of vulnerability. No less would be demanded of them now, if
they were to remain faithful to their covenant relationship with that
same God of mercy. Concern for the poor and weak is a distinguishing
characteristic of God, and He in turn requires His people to refrain
from exploiting the vulnerable. Jesus in the Gospel Reading of today
will pick up and develop this teaching by demanding love for one's
neighbor, and he will then link such love to the supreme
command of the Law, the love of God above all else.
A
LIVING MODEL OF FAITH:
The
Second Reading from St Paul's 1st Letter to the
Thessalonians, illustrates the dynamics of love at work in the early
Christian community in Thessalonica. Having experienced the saving
love of Christ preached and witnessed to them by St. Paul and his
companions, they opened their hearts to the Gospel and became their
imitators. Even through persecution, they persisted in their faith,
receiving the Word of God with joy. St. Paul tells them that the joy
in their faith during persecution is the fruit of the Holy Spirit and
true imitation of Christ. Further, he praises them wholeheartedly for
abandoning their idols to serve the true living God and thus becoming
living model of faith for all the believers in Macedonia and
in Achaia. These were the communities where St. Paul was residing
when the good news about the Thessalonians reached him. Moreover, the
life that they lived by the power of the Holy Spirit enabled them to
spread their loving faith in God to surrounding places. Finally, St.
Paul asks them to eagerly await for Christ's return who rescues all
from future wrath.
“TEACHER,
WHICH COMMANDMENT IN THE LAW IS GREATEST?”
In today's Gospel Reading from St. Matthew, we have
last and final of the three questions put to Jesus to entrap him by
his opponents - the 1st regarding the payment of taxes to
Caesar, about which we heard last Sunday; the 2nd
concerning the nature of the resurrection of the dead, asked earlier;
and the 3rd question “Teacher,
which commandment in the law is the greatest?” which
we hear in today's Gospel Reading.
The question seems simple, but it is
really not. God, through Moses had given to the Jews the Ten
Commandments; And by the time Jesus came into the world, their
religious leaders had multiplied them to 613 or so. Now, for a devout
Jew, all the commandments were to be observed with equal care. Surely
to single out one commandment might suggest that the other
commandments are not of equal weight, or of lesser importance. This
is perhaps the trap that the Pharisees hope Jesus might fall into.
In
response, Jesus goes straight to the heart of the matter - 'Love,'
and answers the question on his own
terms, splicing together two commandments quoting from the Books of
Deuteronomy and Leviticus respectively - “'You
shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'
This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it:
'You shall love your
neighbor
as yourself.'
On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Jesus
answers the scribe's question with a clarity that goes straight to
the point and
it is a succinct, triumphant, encapsulation of the Mosaic Law. He
shows his mastery of the Scriptures in arriving at these two
principles under which all the other laws and traditions may be
subsumed. An attempt to entrap Jesus
resulted in a profound synthesis of the Law in the Old Testament.
Clearly above Jesus is
showing that these two commandments are not only inseparable but are
in fact one commandment. However, there is in fact a third
commandment implied in Jesus' answer, namely, 'Love
of oneself.' This third commandment is the one we often
fail to notice and yet it is in some ways the key to the others.
Jesus is here reacting against a one-dimensional understanding of
love. For Jesus, true love must express itself in three dimensions.
These three dimensions are (a) love of God, (b) love of neighbor, and
(c) love of oneself. The first two are positively commanded; the last
one is not commanded but presumed to be the basis of all loving. The
commandment to love your neighbor as yourself presumes that you love
yourself. What I am to myself becomes what I am to others and vice
versa. And together we all go to God as he comes to us. In love.
Even though Jesus' answer
touched on all three dimensions of love, what is the emphasis, the
point Jesus is trying to make? When one asks a question that demands
one straightforward answer and the person answers his question and
goes on to add another thing that he did not actually ask for, it is
most likely that the person is trying to get his attention on the
second element of the answer. So, the emphasis in today's question
about the greatest commandment is not on the obvious love of God but
on the love of neighbor which the Pharisees were trampling upon.
They, actually had great zeal and love of God, and were so conscious
about its primacy and importance; but the point Jesus is making to
them is that why then they are so insensitive when it comes to love
of neighbor?
The error of the
Pharisees is still here with us. There are still many Christians who
try to separate love of fellow human beings from love of God. Their
commitment to faith does not include commitment to love of their
neighbor. We shall do well to heed the message of Jesus in today's
gospel: that true love of God and true love of neighbor are two sides
of the same coin. Any attempt to separate them is a falsification of
the message of Christ.
CONCLUSION:
Today's Gospel Reading is
probably the best known and most memorized scripture passage in the
New Testament. Love is at the center of Christian life. To love God
with our whole being means to make God the center of our life.
Once God is at the center of our life, the second commandment
is easier to follow, to love our neighbor. It sounds as simple as
that, but it
is very challenging. It isn't that easy as one may realize. We do not
always love as we ought to and our failure to love is an indication
that we ought to pray even more to discover and to fall in love with
God.
Once
an English journalist visited Kolkata, India to see the works of the
Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity, founded by Mother Teresa. He
went to their old-age house at Kali-ghat Temple and watched an
attractive young Nun dressing the wounds on a man with gangrene in
his leg. The journalist was appalled by the very sight of the wound,
but at the same time he was full of admiration for the young nun who
seemed to show no disgust as she was cleaning the suppurating wound.
“I wouldn’t do that for £1,000,” said the journalist.
“Neither would I,” said the Nun, “I do it for love.”
Finally, it is God who first loves us and that makes
us able to love ourselves and therefore to be grateful for the gift
of ourselves. This awareness of life as gift is what we mean by
loving God. We cannot love ourselves without being grateful to God,
and it is this gratitude to God that sets us free really to love
other people. Too often the value that we place upon others is tied
up with what they can do for us - 'What is
their value to me?' Truly
loving one's neighbor entails valuing them as gifts of God. Not only
are we gifts of God, and our neighbors gifts of God, but the love
with which we love ourselves and others is the expression of our love
for God. And this is the Good News of today.
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