It seems like Catholics do not pay very much attention to the Old Testament readings, because they are ancient, outdated, full of violence, and the people in these stories commit such terrible sins, like murder and adultery. God the Father often seems angry and upset with His people, because they keep turning away from Him to commit serious sins, and to seek other Gods. Who can forget how God destroyed the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and then turned Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt? His justice is terrible indeed. But, God’s love for us far outweighs His justice, as long as we live by His commandments.
The first reading for Mass sounds strict, like God is imposing more rules on us to live by:
“You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourself in the land of Egypt.”
(This is a double-edged sword. We aren’t supposed to mistreat foreigners or immigrants, but we often do, and we do forget that it wasn’t that many years ago that our ancestors were immigrants too.)
“You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. If you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry. My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword; then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans.”
(This verse calls to mind a common saying, that what goes around, comes around. What you give out, you get back. If we do not want others to gossip about us, for an example, then we shouldn’t gossip about them. That kind of thing.)
“If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors among my people, you shall not act like an extortioner toward him by demanding interest from him.”
(This verse really makes you stop and think about it. Modern people act like they have never heard of this verse in scripture. Our modern society is filled with loan sharks and people with high interest credit card debt that they can’t seem to get out from under.)
“If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, you shall return it to him before sunset; for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body. What else has he to sleep in? If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate.”
(Pawn shops thrive in many cities, because people are desperate for money to make ends meet. They pledge their possessions in exchange for a small amount of cash that is usually spent for necessities like food, heat and rent. It just isn’t right for a person to pawn their wedding ring just to feed their children, but this happens sometimes.)
The overriding theme of the first reading for Mass today though, is that God sees the plight of those who suffer and those who are mistreated. He cares what they are going through. Their suffering does not go unnoticed. Every time someone mistreats us or takes advantage of us, God knows it, and it isn’t His will that we are treated this way. He loves us, and He cares about our well-being.
The first reading for Mass isn’t a set of rules after all. God is standing up for those who suffer, by telling those who cause the suffering that they will answer to Him. What a powerful advocate we have, in God the Father! How much He loves each and every one of us. The question is, do we love Him back just as much as He loves us?
The first reading was all about God, and that is what the greatest commandment in the gospel is about too. A scholar of the law tested Jesus by asking him, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jesus’s answer applies just as much to us today, as it did to the people of his time:
“He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and will all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: Your shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
It is so easy to get these commandments in the reverse order in our lives though. Do the priorities in your life ever resemble this?
- Take care of me.
- Take care of my family.
- Take care of my relationship with God.
See how easy it is to get these commandments reversed? Do we spend most of our time, energy and effort in life on ourselves first, our family and other people second, and then whatever is left over we spend on our relationship with God? Isn’t God worth more than our left overs? Is He in third place in our lives? That is a good question to think about today.
Sunday Mass Readings:
Exodus 22: 20-26 / Psalm 18 / 1 Thessalonians 1: 5c-10 / Matthew 22: 34-40
