Friday, August 23, 2002
20th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Ezk 37:1-14
Gospel: Mt 22:34-40
When
the Pharisees heard how Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they came together.
One of them, a teacher of the Law, tried to test him with this question,
"Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the Law?"
Jesus answered, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and the most important of the commandments. But after this there is another one very similar to it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole Law and the Prophets are founded on these two commandments."
Commentary
Jesus is truly formidable. Nobody can stand his word that cuts like a two-edged sword. Having silenced the powerful Sadducees, he now stands the test of the popular Pharisees, many of whom in their overzealous piety tended to lose the balance of priorities between what is essential and what is superfluous. Jesus brings them to that which cannot be taken for granted: the great commandment or Shema, which every devout Jew makes a confession of in the morning and in the evening. It is a constant reminder of the covenant once made between God and God's people. But the relationship with God is concretized in the acts of justice due to one another as a covenantal people. Thus, the inseparability of God's love from that of love for one's neighbor. All the other precepts are simply expressions of this two-pronged commandment. Is our observance of God's commands mainly concerned with the external observances rather than with their core essence - the Covenant?