1ST: Exodus 22:20-26
2nd: 1 Thessalonians 1: 5c-10
Gospel: Matthew 22: 34-40
Well, here we are again. We hear the Pharisees trying to put Jesus to the test. Last Sunday we heard the Pharisees attempt to entrap Jesus in his own words with the response to the question about being lawful in paying taxes to Caesar.
This Sunday we hear the Pharisees once again attempting to trap Jesus, to invalidate Jesus’ authority by asking him about the greatest commandment. Keep in mind that the Jewish people held about 613 commandments and 365 prohibitions.
Well, I imagine it was mind boggling for the Jewish nation of Israel to comprehend, let alone remember all their laws and regulations. Is it any wonder that keeping the law became a burden for so many people?
Today’s gospel shows how Jesus sees beyond all those laws to see what is at the heart of it all, to see the greatest commandment that is at the center of the covenant with God. “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Jesus says that “This is the greatest and the first commandment.” Then he goes on to say; “the second is like it.” “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus is giving this second part importance as a part of the first.
Jesus is speaking about one’s whole being and life energy being directed into the first and second commandment, Love God, Love Neighbor. Love Neighbor, Love God. You see, you cannot have one and not the other.
Jesus saw the law as a unified whole because it was based in the covenant with God and that covenant came into being because of God’s love. And so, love becomes the principle or decisive factor and the key to interpreting the requirements of the law.
The real challenge comes when we are asked to live out that love covenant through our day to day interactions with our neighbors. We are asked to love those whom God loves and that group is much wider than the people we like or those we find easy to love.
Can you imagine how it would be coming from an Islamic country living here, or coming to this country from some other place looking for work, any work, to put food in a child’s belly, or coming from a country ruled by tyranny and injustice.
These neighbors, possibly living next to us, are stared at and looked at as outsiders, people, who even in our country of freedom, are considered beneath us. Now, not all of us think this way but that is the perception our society emanates.
Isn’t this the warning we hear in our first reading today from Exodus? How do we treat the outsider, the alien, the immigrant around us? It is odd that we do not hear cries across our country for solutions to these perceptions. It is odd that we do not hear the cries of the poor enter into our governments discussions.
We sure hear the cries of banks and financial institutions that are looking for bailouts but what about those who are losing their homes because they cannot afford those balloon payments? How about the farmer who cannot afford to work the fields?
We know so much more today about the hardships suffered by our neighbors here and abroad but despite the wealth our nation, there are many vulnerable and struggling people. Just look under the overpasses of our freeways or the long lines at the food banks across our country, or even look at those dear children who are dying of starvation and sickness in Africa.
At the Last Supper, Jesus reminds us all again. He says to his disciples and us: “Love one another as I have loved you.” At times, loving one another, loving our neighbor is really difficult. It is not easy to forgive a drunken driver who has killed a close relative, a drug addict who robs and steals from the elderly to feed their addiction.
We, as Christians, are at the heart of what happens to those vulnerable people across our city, county, state, nation, and across our world. If we truly love God, then we truly love others. If we do not give of ourselves fully with mind, heart, soul, how can we love ourselves or even love our neighbor? How can we help those who need us, yes, even the drunken driver and the drug addict?
Jesus shows us the greatest love possible. He doesn’t expect us to be crucified but he is asking us to live lives based on love.
My sisters and brothers, today and every time we go to Mass, we receive in us God’s total gift of love through the body and blood of his only Son, Jesus Christ. If we truly and honestly open ourselves to receive this love, then we are transformed through it by the gift and power of the Holy Spirit., to live our lives in God’s love.
What happens when we live our lives in His Love? We share this love with others whether those under the overpasses of our highways, those who have different religious beliefs, those who are persecuted, those who are hungry, those who have wronged us, those who are vulnerable.
Let us join together as the body of Christ to prepare ourselves to receive Jesus in our midst. He is waiting for us. On the cross he hung, between God and Neighbor, loving each with all his heart, mind and soul, inviting us to do the same.