INTRODUCTION
The readings of this Sunday aim at drawing our attention to the concept of Love which is a fundamental element of our Christian identity as well as the foundation on which a true religion is constructed. Thus, the greatest commandment in the Bible is to respond to God’s love for us by loving Him in return, and then to express that love in action by loving Him present in our neighbor. Our love for God is made manifest and felt in practical ways in the style and manner in which we relate with those around us. This love is not an option to choose but a binding command for those who wish to retain their identity as the children of God.
FIRST READING: Exodus 22:20-26
It took God lots of relentless efforts to set his people free from the hand of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. If we must use an anthropomorphic language, we could say that God suffered from the stubbornness of Pharaoh who despite all the terrible plagues refused to let the people go. Moreover, even when he finally succumbed to pressures, it did not last so long for him to realize that he has made a great mistake, and thus he quickly rallied the armies that gave the Israelites a quick chase. The rest is the story of how they perished in the Red Sea. Setting the people free from captivity shows the type of value that God attaches to freedom, and realizing that through thick and thin tells of how no one should ever be denied of it. The chapter 22 of the book of Exodus is an extension of the Ten Commandments given to the wandering people of the wilderness (Exodus 20). But in this case, it deals with the laws of social conduct, the social ethic not strictly on justice, but on a compassion and love that should accompany their dealings with the poor among them. Here the stranger is considered among the poor because the fact of living in a foreign soil exposes one to vulnerable situations and deprivation of certain rights and privileges. The last part of the passage is very interesting. God instructs that the mantle/cloak of the poor neighbour must be restored back to him before the sun sets. The use of cloak was very much common among the ancient hebrews because of the environment. It served as a protection against the periodic changes in the temperature especially harsh winds. Moreover, it is one of the few things the poor could boast of, and which served the purpose of covering their body against the cold of the night (Dt 24:13). Therefore, to retain the garment of the poor which he needed to cover himself against cold and to keep warm, was considered by Yahweh as an act of extreme cruelty. Thus, He vows to punish the offender by mere sound of the cry of the poor (Ex. 22:27).
However, apart from being schooled to obey the voice of Yahweh, the Mosaic Law was equally an instrument of civilization for the Jews, instilling in them the idea that it was wrong to oppress an alien or take advantage of the poor, things they themselves had suffered from and were delivered by Yahweh. No doubt, these legislations helped the ancient Jews to build an excellent, humane society rooted in the basic religious concept that loving God necessarily involves loving one’s neighbor. The Mosaic Laws equally served as the basis of their unity and identity as a people; a unity and identity rooted fundamentallly in their monotheistic worldview.
SECOND READING: I Thessalonians 1:5c-10
First Thessalonians is the earliest letter we have from Saint Paul. The first century AD Thessalonians lived and served in a mostly pagan city with an enthusiasm so contagious as to attract others to the Church. Here Paul congratulates his audience on the positive effects of their example of loving one another as Jesus has commanded them to do. They have received the Gospel with ready Faith, he tells them, and they have withstood persecution with joy. Those actions, particularly their loving response to Paul himself, their ready belief in Jesus, and their generous living out of that Faith, have bolstered the Faith of Christians elsewhere who have heard about them. Paul and these earliest Christians believed that Jesus would come again very soon. Their conviction was that God was soon to bring history to its end with the return of Jesus in glory. This expectation faded over the years during which the New Testament Scriptures were composed (fr Anthony Kadavil).
GOSPEL: Matthew 22: 34-40
The chapter 22 of the Gospel of Matthew contains series of confrontation between Jesus and the leading groups in Judaism. Last Sunday we heard about how the Pharisees grouped together with the Herodians to find reasons to accuse Jesus. And today’s account is preceded by the scrupulous question of the Sadducees to Jesus about resurrection and afterlife (the Sadducees do not subscribe to the faith in the resurrection and Afterlife). Thus hearing how Jesus defeated the Sadducees, this Pharisee/lawyer also came to test the wisdom of Jesus and to satisfy his curiosity. But beyond that, it was an attempt to humiliate Jesus unlike in Mark’s account whereby the question about the greatest commandment is asked by a scribe with the intention to learn, and Jesus declared him to be not far from the kingdom (Mark 12:28-34). Evidently Matthew was writing after the fall of Jerusalem, which essentially eliminated the influence of the Sadducees and Zealots, leaving the Pharisees firmly in charge. At this time, the Pharisees were actively persecuting the Christians, thus Matthew presented them with a hostile approach.
“TEACHER, WHICH IS THE GREAT COMMANDMENT IN THE LAW?” Such was a rhetoric question asked by this Pharisee with the intention of leaving Jesus in confusion because the Pharisees who believed both in the written and oral tradition expanded the Mosaic Law into hundreds of rules and regulations making up 613 precepts of the Torah. Therefore to condense such number of precepts into a single sentence is a difficult task and some Bible scholars hold that it was a trap question because the Pharisees believed that each one of the 613 commands (mitzot) in the Torah were equally important and necessary to obey. (The Pharisees identified 613 commandments in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). Two hundred forty-eight were positive (“thou shalt”) and three hundred sixty-five were negative (“thou shalt not”). Summarizing the Law, King David proposed eleven (Ps 15), Isaiah six (33:15), Micah three (6:8), and Amos only one (5:4)Fr Anthony kadavil).
The quick and straightforward response given by Jesus was a complete definition of religion:
(i) A true religion consists in loving God. The verse which Jesus quotes is Deuteronomy 6:5. It is part of the famous SHEMA also known as the basic and essential creed of Judaism. The Shema is part of the essentials and ofcourse the first text every Jew should commit to memory. It is recited in every jewish prayer gathering. It calls for a total and unreserved love to God, a type of love which dominates our emotions, directs our thoughts, and determines our actions. The accent put on the undivided love for Yahweh tells of the Jewish strict credo in absolute monotheism.
(ii) The second commandment, ‘the love of one’s neighbour’ which Jesus quotes comes from Leviticus 19:18. Thus He affirms that the love for God must propel the love for men. In whichever way it is taken, the love of God must come first, and the love of men second. It is not the love of men that should lead us to love God. Such approach runs the risk of reducing the essence of God who is Love Himself. It is by loving Love (God) that the love for men bears the image of God in which we are created (Genesis 1:26-27). Jesus combined the originally separate commandments and presented them as the essence of true living. One cannot be chosen without the other. And as R. H Fuller puts it: “Without the love of neighbor, the love of God remains a barren emotion; and without the love of God, love of neighbor is but a refined form of self-love.” Reginald H. Fuller).
LIFE MESSAGES
1 WE NEED TO LOVE GOD:
In a world where the craving for self affirmation and continuous pursuit ephemeral things in order to satisfy the soul, the love for God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength as our response to His Love for us becomes almost impossible. Jesus reminds us today about the essence of true living that is, any life devoid of the love for God is meaningless. This simply suggests the need to place God’s will ahead of our will, to seek his will in all things and to fulfill his plans in our lives. Some of the practical means by which we can express our love for God is by acknowledging the fact that our life and existence depend totally and unreservedly on Him, striving to keep his commandments, offering him an undivided worship (God cannot share our praise with any other thing), meditating on His word that nourishes our souls and accepting the wonderful gift of His Son especially as He is given totally in the Eucharist.
2 WE NEED TO LOVE OUR NEIGHBOUR God’s will is that we should love everyone, seeing Him in our neighbor. Since every human being is the child of God and the dwelling place of the Spirit of God, we are actually giving expression to our love of God by loving our neighbor as Jesus loves him or her. This means we need to help, support, encourage, forgive, and pray for everyone without discrimination based on color, race, gender, age, wealth, personal attractiveness, or social status. Forgiveness, too, is vital. We love others by refusing to hold a grudge for a wrong done to us. Even a rebuke can be an act of love, if it is done with the right heart. We also express love through encouragement and by helping each other to grow. We express agápe love by meeting a need that God has given us the power to meet, by comforting each other, by teaching each other and by sharing the Gospel, in deeds and in words. We express our love for our neighbor by waiting upon the aged, nursing the sick, patching up quarrels, and listening to the broken-hearted. In short, loving our neighbor is feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, meeting the basic needs of the poor, helping the unemployed, educating the young and taking care of the old. (Fr Anthony Kadavil). To do this, the human heart must undergo a conversion. The conversion here means letting the self be absolved in the world of the other. Love is love when it changes the life of the other through an encounter in which the emptiness in ones soul is filled by the other. Most often we are lost in the world of friends thinking that we truly love. When we have friends who belong to our class and who share in our standard of life, then we are yet to love our neighbour. The love of the neighbour in which Jesus speaks of is not ‘selectionism’. It implies making oneself available to encounter the other without a particular identity, nationality, religion and language. It is the love for the poor and the weak, and those who by their status cannot attract love. Jesus’ option for the weak and the unloved is a living example for us.
PRAYER
Almighty and ever-living God, increase our faith, hope and charity, and make us love what you command, so that we may merit what you promise. Through our Lord Jesus Christ Your Son who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, One God for ever and ever. Amen.
PAX VOBIS!
