Friday in the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time, August 25, 2023

Matthew 22, 34-40

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law, tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

In Deuteronomy 6, 4–8, Moses solemnly declares to the Israelites: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength.”  So important are this commandment that Moses continues: “And these words which I command you this day, shall be in your heart: And you shall tell them to your children, and you shall meditate upon them sitting in your house, and walking on your journey, sleeping and rising. And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets before your eyes.”  Thus, the Pharisee asks Jesus a question to which the answer is very well-known.  Since this is so, the Pharisee is asking it as a preliminary to further questioning — to gradually build a case for the matter he has in mind.  However, after answering the question and adding the content of the second greatest commandment, the Lord, according to St. Matthew seized the moment and asked his own questions of the gathered Pharisees: “What think you of Christ? Whose son is he?” (Matthew 22, 42).  St. Mark adds to what we know of this event by telling us that this Pharisee, a scribe, responded with understanding to what Jesus said, pleasing him so well that the Lord said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God” (Mark 12, 34).  And this response silenced everyone so that the Pharisee did not go on with his questioning.  We can well-imagine the shock and confusion among the Pharisees when the Lord said this to the one who had spoken to him, for  the way the Lord spoke of the Kingdom of God did not make any sense to them, as in, How could a particular individual be close to the Kingdom of God, which was the Kingdom to be inaugurated on earth by the Messiah with the overthrow of the Romans?

“You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength.”  We are able to do this knowing that the Lord our God loves us with his whole heart and strength: “Let us therefore love God: because God first has loved us” (1 John 4, 19).  Not only is the knowledge of God’s love for us motivation for us to love him, but his love actually enables us, through grace, to love him.  This love is increased by the good works we do for his sake and for our growth in knowledge about him.  When we devoutly and carefully read the Scriptures, especially the Gospels, we grow in our love for him.  Now, Moses knew that loving God was the most essential of all human activities and so he commands the people to meditate always on how deserving he is of our love and how right it is for us to love him.  And if the Israelites were to do this, then how much more we who belong to the Body of Christ ought to do this.  Looking upon the crucifix aids us well in bringing to mind the love of God for us, not even sparing his own Son so that we might have eternal life.

“The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  The Pharisee does not ask for the second greatest commandment but the Lord sees the two as linked so that he must speak of the second if he speaks of the first.  Throughout the Gospels he links our relationship with God to our relationship with our fellow humans.  For instance, he tells us to pray to the Father, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  St. John explains the doctrine: “If any one says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also” (1 John 4, 20-21).  In this way also we may grow in our love for Almighty God, by exercising our love for those among whom he has placed us.  This love may take various forms and will vary in intensity according to the nearness of our relations, but we will not withhold our love from anyone.  At the very least we will pray for a person’s conversion of heart.

“The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”  The Mosaic Law is spread out over the course of four books and is not organized.  It is also interspersed with narratives.  Here, the Lord gives us the keys to following the whole of the moral law which we are bound to obey as his members.