Saturday in the 30th Week of Ordinary Time, October 31, 2026

Luke 14:1, 7-11

On a Sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully. He told a parable to those who had been invited, noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor. A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him, and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then you would proceed with embarrassment to take the lowest place. Rather, when you are invited, go and take the lowest place so that when the host comes to you he may say, ‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’ Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Our model par excellence of humility is the Lord Jesus Christ, for, as St. Paul says, he “who was in the form of God, did not think it a prize to be grasped to be equal to God, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, born in the likeness of men, and was found in the likeness of a man.  He humbled himself, being born unto death, the death of the cross” (Philippians 2, 6-8).  The verb I have translated from the Greek as “emptied” can also mean “to deprive of content”.  To begin to understand the Lord’s humility, which is all we can humanly do, we have to think in terms of similes and metaphors.  In today’s Gospel reading, the Lord himself presents what he has done, taking “the lowest place”.  Verse 10 in this reading, which speaks of this, might be translated, literally, “But when you are called, traveling, recline at the last place.” The verb I have translated as “traveling” has this customary meaning, rather than “go”.  The adjective I have translated here as “last” is the Greek eschaton, which does not mean “lowest”, as in the lectionary translation, but “last”, “final”, “at the last”.  The Lord uses this word to describe himself in Revelation 22, 13: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Applying this verse to the Lord, it means that he “emptied himself” in order to “travel” the great distance between heaven and earth, where he reclined first in the womb of the Virgin Mother, then in a dirty manger, on the “bed” of the Cross, as the Fathers called it, and in a stranger’s tomb, taking the furthest place from heaven possible in the human world.

The Lord shows how we might imitate him in his humility through the parable in this reading.  “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor.”  The seating at a banquet or feast was determined by the host.  The guest of honor, or the guest whom the host considered of highest importance would be given a place of marked significance — at the head of the table, for instance.  The other guests would be seated by the host in the order of importance in which he viewed them.  (The fact that the Lord and his Mother were with the servants at the Wedding at Cana tells us that they were seated at places furthest from the head).  The order was determined entirely by the host.  Thus, a guest who chose for himself the place of honor showed himself rude and a fool.  “A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him.”  This is the more likely the greater the number of guests who have been invited.  In addition, the seating of a guest in the place of honor by the host was itself a conspicuous honor.  In seating himself, the foolish guest would be passing this up.  But because a fool seldom realizes that he is a fool, the Lord urges that no one consider himself the guest of honor.  Otherwise, “you would proceed with embarrassment to take the lowest place.”  A better translation would be: “You will be led in shame to the last place.”  

Rather, the Lord says, “traveling, recline at the last place so that when the host comes to you he may say, ‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’ ”  We note that the Lord did not say to take one of the last places, but the very last place.  The host, recognizing the true value of the guest in the last place at the table, seats him higher up, perhaps displacing another person to do this.  The Almighty Father who sees his Son in the last place, says to him, My Son, come up higher, and so from his tomb he raises him to glory.  “Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table.”  Those at the table will praise the one who is raised up, seeing the favor bestowed upon him by their host.  The guest thus receives greater honor than if he had been seated by the host there right at the start.

“Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”  We should note here that the one who “exalts himself” will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself “will be exalted” by another, by the host.  When we exalt ourselves we show our own foolish pride.  When someone of actual importance exalts us, it is a different matter.  When the Lord exalts us after we have taken the last place with him on earth, we shall be glorified in the eyes of the angels.

Friday in the 30th Week of Ordinary Time, October 30, 2026

Luke 14, 1-6

On a sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully. In front of him there was a man suffering from dropsy. Jesus spoke to the scholars of the law and Pharisees in reply, asking, “Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath or not?” But they kept silent; so he took the man and, after he had healed him, dismissed him. Then he said to them “Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?” But they were unable to answer his question.

From a remark by some Pharisees a few verses before those that are used for the Gospel reading for today’s Mass (“Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you”), it seems that Jesus has not yet left Galilee for Judea.  Thus, “the home of one of the leading Pharisees” where Jesus eats in this reading is in Galilee.  He is invited to eat dinner there after he has attended the synagogue in the town to which he has come and where he would have also taught.  The host and those who also had been invited to the dinner “were observing him closely”, noticing that he did not join in the ritual washings in preparation for eating, and expectant for any other behavior or words they deemed out of place.

Among the gathering sat a man “suffering from dropsy”.  This condition is marked by a swelling in the feet, ankles, or legs caused by fluid buildup due to heart, kidney or liver disease.  The afflicted man would have struggled to walk and suffered much pain.  He must have been one of the leading Pharisees as well since Luke characterized those present as “the scholars of the law and Pharisees”.  The Lord asks them, “Is it lawful to cure on the Sabbath or not?”  The Lord applies a different strategy than when he cured the woman in the synagogue on the Sabbath in Luke 13, 10-17.  That is, he asks before he acts.  In this way he also announces what he intends to do.  Now, this situation differs from that with the infirm woman in that this man was one of their own.  He was a friend, a colleague.  By posing his question first, he puts the present company over a barrel.  If they object in order to protect their doctrine, they show the man that they are not his friends.  They could not answer: “They kept silent.”  Their silence does not save them, though.  It reveals plainly that they cannot defend their own doctrine, but it also reveals that they do not regard the man with the dropsy as their friend, or they would have urged the Lord to heal him, Sabbath or not.  The Lord has already shown his inclination to do just that.

“He took the man and, after he had healed him, dismissed him.”  The Greek verb tells us that the Lord “took hold” of the man.  This could mean that he raised him up and lay his hands on him.  Luke does not describe the healing itself, only writing, “when he had healed him”, as though even Luke was so overwhelmed by the succession of miracles that they had become familiar.  Luke does tells us that after the Lord healed him, he dismissed him: he sent him home.  In this way the Lord saves him from ensuing awkwardness.  After the man is safely out of the house, with the gathering strangely silent, the Lord confronts them with a question similar to what he had said to the Pharisees after he healed the infirm woman: “Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?”  In other words, is a human worth more than an animal or not?  But the group lacked the humility and the honesty to respond.  Failing to give any answer shows their bad faith and their disrespect.  We might wonder how they dared to face the healed man in public afterwards.

At the heart of this account is the healing by Jesus of this man.  He revealed the mercy of God to him through it.  Since he was included among the Pharisees at this dinner, we can wonder whether he had begun with a hostile opinion of the Lord, or whether he harbored curiosity instead.  It seems likely that the host considered him in accord with the views of the majority of their kind that Jesus was a false teacher.  Yet the Lord did not let whatever the afflicted man think of him prevent him from showing God’s loving kindness to him.  Almighty God does not love only those who love him, after all, but all whom he has created.  Nothing we can do can stop him from loving us.  We ought not to be prevented by anything from loving him.

Thursday in the 30th Week of Ordinary Time, October 29, 2026

Luke 13, 31-35

Some Pharisees came to Jesus and said, “Go away, leave this area because Herod wants to kill you.” He replied, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I accomplish my purpose. Yet I must continue on my way today, tomorrow, and the following day, for it is impossible that a prophet should die outside of Jerusalem.’   Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were unwilling! Behold, your house will be abandoned. But I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

“Go away, leave this area because Herod wants to kill you.”  These Pharisees present that they have information that Herod wanted to kill the Lord Jesus.  They come to him as though doing him a favor.  However, evidence makes it unlikely that they speak the truth. In Luke 23, 8 we read that Herod “was desirous for a long time of seeing him, because he had heard many things of him; and he hoped to see some sign wrought by him.”  It seems, then, that the Pharisees were merely trying to get him to leave their area.  Thus the darkness hates the light (cf. John 1, 5).  According to St. Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444), in the Lord’s response, “Go and tell that fox”, the fox” is the Pharisee who gave him the false warning.  In fact, the Greek word translated here as “that” actually means “this”.  “That” refers to someone over there; “this” refers to someone close at hand.  In addition, by calling the Pharisee a “fox” the Lord intimates that he knows very well that he is trying to trick him.  The Lord’s treatment of the Pharisee is like that of his treatment of the Nazarenes who tried to kill him: he did not speak to them but went his way.  

“Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I accomplish my purpose.”  Here the Lord tell the Pharisees to give a message to their lying colleague, but the message is meant for them as well.  The Lord is telling them that he will continue to work where and when he wants until he “accomplishes his purpose”.  The Greek for this last phrase means “I am perfected” or “I am completed”.  That is, until the Sacrifice of his life on the Cross.

“I must continue on my way today, tomorrow, and the following day, for it is impossible that a prophet should die outside of Jerusalem.”  The Lord’s “way” is his journey towards his Passion, a journey that began at the moment of his Incarnation in the womb of the Blessed Virgin.  He makes it clear that he shall face the unjust hatred of the authorities suffered by the Old Testament Prophets, especially Jeremiah, and will die at Jerusalem.  We should note that the Lord refers to himself as a “prophet”.  The primary work of the old Prophets was to warn the people to repent from their sins or that they would be destroyed.  This was at the heart of the Lord’s preaching:  “Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1, 15).

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the Prophets and stone those sent to you.”  This brings to mind the lament over Jerusalem of the Prophet Jeremiah: “Your ways and your doings have brought this upon you.  This is your doom, and it is bitter; it has reached your very heart. My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain!” (Jeremiah 4, 18-19).  “How many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were unwilling!”  That is, how many times, as a hen gathers her chicks, he would have gathered — saved — his people from “foxes” like the lying Pharisee.  Yet the people were unwilling to reject their false gods and to adhere to the Law.  “Your house will be abandoned.”  They will be offered the way to eternal life but they will reject it and live without it.  Their house will be abandoned not because the Lord has left them, but because they will leave him.  “But I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”  St. Cyril teaches that this time will come at the end of the world, when the Son of God returns for judgment.  It cannot mean the time when Jesus enters Jerusalem the Sunday before he dies on the Cross because he is still in the world then and can be seen by anyone who looks.

The wicked attempt to scare away the faithful so that they may not give witness to Christ through the example of their lives.  They also seek to entice us with the distractions and pleasures of this passing world.  Let us hold fast to our mission of witnessing to Christ so that we will be among those who celebrate when he returns.

The Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Thursday, October 28, 2021

Ephesians 2, 19-22

You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Today’s reflection is on the First Reading for the Mass of this feast.

“You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God.”  Roman citizenship was much prized in the ancient world.  A person could have it through birth, through purchase, or through service.  Paul himself could boast of his citizenship, which allowed him to appeal his legal case to Caesar.  Citizenship conferred a number of privileges on the holder, making him very different before the law from non-citizens.  To be a fellow citizen “with the holy ones” meant to have the same access to the Father as the holy prophets, apostles, and martyrs.

“Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ himself as the capstone.  Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord.”  The Benedictine Walafrid (d. 849) comments in his Gloss: “There is no one so perfect that he is not able to grow”, meaning that our growth into the temple of God ought to be continuous.

“In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”  Paul seems to contrast this temple with the great temple to Artemis in the city's center. Magnificent, rich, and renowned though it was, it remained a dead building. The Church, on the other hand, was constructed of living stones, the cornerstone of which was the Christ who had redeemed mankind and pleaded for it before the Father.  The very foundations consisted of the prophets and apostles, more solid and dependable than any cement or stone.  This reminds of the saying of Jesus that: “He who hears my words and does them is like a wise man who builds his house upon a rock” (Matthew 7, 24).  Nor is it an empty structure, with these foundations and walls, for God himself dwells in it.

So much of the work of the Apostles and their disciples is hidden from history, and yet we can gaze upon the solidity of the Church that has withstood the worst storms which fallen human nature and the scheming of the demons could devise, and marvel at how powerful their work must have been.  From a careful examination of a lofty tower  we can imagine the greatness of its foundations.

There is very little in the Tradition about St. Simon. He is sometimes called, anachronistically, the “Canaanean” from the Greek text of the Gospels, or, “the Zealot”, which might also translate the text, but this is not certain. He is said to have preached the Gospel in and around the land of Israel and to have been crucified.

A rich tradition exists concerning St. Jude, also known as Thaddeus. Armenian Christians have a

Ways claimed that he came into their land and preached the Gospel there, eventually converting their king.

Tuesday in the 30th Week of Ordinary Time, October 27, 2026

Luke 13, 18-21

Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.”  Again he said, “To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”

The Lord Jesus often used simile to teach about the Kingdom of God.  This allowed him to compare this tremendous mystery with ordinary things and experiences.  All the same, his similes are deceptively simple and nearly amount to short parables.  Their simplicity aids ordinary folks while the kernel deep within the heart of each simile provides the more spiritual person much to consider and to be amazed at.

“What is the Kingdom of God like?”  The Lord does not propose to define the Kingdom of God, only to tell “what it is like”.  We might think about what we want to know about it.  For some of us, the answer might be its location.  Where is it?  Others might want to know what does a person do there.  Others are interested in what it looks like.  The Lord answers the question he sets forth by talking about its experience.  He says, “It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.” The Kingdom of God grows around us and also within us.  We can see it grow through baptisms and vocations to the Priesthood and the religious life.  We can see it grow as its missions spread across the face of the earth.  This is very mysterious.  How does it happen that people come to desire to give up their lives to Christ, whatever we are called to in this life?  How does it happen that people in countries and cultures hostile to the Faith will risk death to be baptized?  And this has been happening for two millennia now, in all parts of the world.

We can feel the mystery within us too: “To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”  How does it happen that we are attracted to and love a God who died a shameful death on the Cross? Where does our love of God come from?  How has it grown within us as we grew?  Why do grown men and women confess their sins to priests?  What deep feeling motivates this and what is its origin?  Most believers have moments or periods in which they feel very close to God.  Where does this come from?  How does the dough feel as the yeast rubbed into it causes it to rise?

In the First Reading for today’s Mass, St. Paul puts in concrete terms the manner of life we should live in the Kingdom of God. He sums up his teaching in simple terms: “Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5, 21-33). Paul bases his admonition on the words of Jesus himself: “If then I being your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13, 14). Following his summary, Paul shows us what this means in various relationships. For spouses, and beginning with wives, he says, “Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.” Then, turning to husbands he declares, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her.” This is mutual subordination within the marriage for the sake of Jesus Christ. Because of the importance of this teaching, Paul sums it up once more before he moves on to children and parents: “Each one of you should love his wife as himself, and the wife should respect her husband.” Let us love one another, imitating the love of Jesus for us.

Monday in the 30th Week of Ordinary Time, October 26, 2026

Luke 13, 10-17

Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath. And a woman was there who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect. When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said, “Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.” He laid his hands on her, and she at once stood up straight and glorified God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath, said to the crowd in reply, “There are six days when work should be done. Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day.” The Lord said to him in reply, “Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it out for watering? This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day from this bondage?” When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated; and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.

“Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.”  The Greek says, “He was in one of the synagogues, teaching, on the Sabbath.”  He was teaching in a Judean synagogue on the regular day of the assembly.  On a Sabbath he went to one of the synagogues and was invited to teach.  The Jews did not worship God in their synagogues — they worshipped only in the Temple.  The synagogue had for its purpose the reading and discussion of the Law.  A prominent Jew owned the building and might lead the discussions, but he was not a priest.  This man would be known as the “ruler” of the synagogue, a title he might hold in conjunction with others who contributed to the funding of the building.  We see how this worked in Acts 13, 14–15: “But they [Paul and Barnabas], passing through Perge, came to Antioch in Pisidia: and, entering into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, they sat down.  And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue invited them, saying: Ye men, brethren, if you have any word of exhortation to make to the people, speak.” 

We can think of the Lord Jesus sitting before the crowd of men and women.  They would have felt eager to hear this stranger teach, for he had a reputation as a masterful teacher and as one who healed, confirming his teachings.  Yet, he would have appeared and sounded unlike themselves for he was a bit tattered from his traveling through Galilee and Judea, and he spoke with a thick Galilean accent.  We can surmise that he taught for a normal period of time there, though St. Luke tells us not a word of what he said.  At the end of his teaching, he looked into the congregation and rested his eyes on “a woman . . . who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit . . . bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.”  The Greek text says that she “had a spirit of infirmity”.  The Greek text shows the Hebrew text that lies beneath it.  We might almost say that the Hebrew slip is showing under the Greek dress.  There is no “spirit” of infirmity for the Greeks.  They understood all injuries, sicknesses, and weaknesses as physical in nature.  The Hebrew implies that a particular spirit had possessed her so that she could not stand upright.  Nor does this indicate a figure of speech, for when Jesus encounters a blind man or a lame man or a leper, he is not customarily said to confront a spirit of blindness or lameness, or a spirit of leprosy.

“Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.”  The Lord does not say “healed”, here.  The Greek says, “You are released from your infirmity.”  Now, she has made no request.  The Lord sees her, knows her suffering, and releases her.  It is almost as though it had been permitted for the spirit of infirmity to hold her until the Lord came so that he could release her at that time.  Perhaps we have a hint at the mystery of human suffering here.  That it had been part of God’s Providence that she should suffer this terrible condition for so long so that his Son could show his love for her and for all humanity in releasing her in this public way, in the place of the learning of the Law.  We might question the “need” for her to suffer like this, but we must recall that none of us is owed a life without suffering.  Besides this, a single serious sin causes the death of the soul.  It might be that the imposition of her condition prevented her from committing sins which would have left her damned.  The Lord releases her, laying his hands on her.  We might see this and think whether it might be worth eighteen years of suffering to feel the hands of the Lord Jesus on us just once. “She at once stood up straight and glorified God.”  She is released immediately.  The Lord, literally, raised her up.  We can consider how this sums up the Lord’s life: he comes, he teaches, and then he raises to life.  And when he raises to life, the Jewish leaders respond with outrage.  “There are six days when work should be done. Come on those days to be cured, not on the Sabbath day.”  The synagogue ruler was “indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath.”  Here again, we see a Hebrew text beneath the Greek, for healing on the Sabbath would have meant nothing to Luke’s Greek audience.  The synagogue ruler exposes himself to us as a Pharisee, whose interpretation of the Law forbade almost any activity on the Sabbath, though the words of the Law say nothing about the performing of miracles.  The Pharisee might have known this (although unwilling to admit it) and so he tries to blame the woman for coming to the synagogue for healing.  But this is not what she did, nor, as was pointed out before, did she so much as ask to be healed.  She came to the synagogue for the same reason that the ruler (presumably) had: to learn about the Law.

The Lord takes up the woman’s defense: “Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it out for watering?”  Now, “hypocrites” did not mean then what it means now.  The Greek word was a translation of a Hebrew word that meant “the godless” or “faithless”.  Understanding this helps us with what the Lord is saying.  Indeed, he says “Faithless men” in the plural, as though addressing the congregation or, at least, its leaders.  Then rather than argue the Law with them, as though they were not worthy of it, he speaks about the ordinary experience of caring for one’s animals on the Sabbath. “This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the Sabbath day from this bondage?”  Far from breaking the Law by coming for a healing on a forbidden day, he calls her a “daughter of Abraham”.  The Lord also confirms the nature of her condition.  The Lord  says that Satan had “bound” her, that is, had possessed her and had chained her in such a way that she could not stand erect, a typical punishment for those awaiting trial.  We can think of St. Peter in prison, chained in this way (cf. Acts 12, 6).  And just as the Jews were free of servile labor on the Sabbath so as to study the word of God, so she is freed from her servile condition.

“When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated; and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.”  The rulers of the synagogue were “disgraced”, “shamed”, “put to confusion” by the Lord’s words.  In short, they lost their credibility.  In such a way the Lord showed that the Jewish leadership as a whole, including the priesthood, was finished.  He stood alone as the Teacher and Fulfiller of the Law.  The crowd rejoiced on behalf of the woman, on behalf of the overthrow of their tyrants, and in Jesus, who had come to raise them up.

The Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 25, 2026

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.”

Today’s reading directly comes after the Lord’s encounter with the Sadducees, in which he was challenged on the doctrine of the Resurrection.  It is the only time we know of in which they approached him.  Following this encounter, the Pharisees resume their attempts to pin him down as to the basis for his teaching.  One of their band thus steps forward and asks him point blank: “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”  This is an identity test, asking the question, Who are you, and what do you believe?  It is also a test regarding the Lord’s beliefs about the Law as a whole.  We recall that in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus had already defended himself against the accusation that he saw his mission as abolishing the Law (cf. Matthew 5, 17).  The opinion that the Lord denigrated the law arose because he had openly cured people on the Sabbath, an action which did not in fact break the Law, but only the Pharisaic interpretation of the Law. 

“Teacher, which commandment in the Law is the greatest?”  This was a question every Jew could answer because the answer was the Shema Israel, a prayer, blessing, and creed which a Jew would say twice a day, and which was carried in written form in the phylacteries which the Jews wore: “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. 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 and shall move between your eyes. And you shall write them in the entry, and on the doors of your house” (Deuteronomy 6, 4-9).

This answer would have satisfied the Pharisee, but the Lord goes on to speak of the second law, “second” not in terms of numbering but in terms of importance: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  This law is given in Leviticus 19, 18 in order to sum up a series of commandments regarding one’s behavior towards a fellow Jew.  This law, then, does not follow in consecutive order from the “first” commandment, and the Pharisees would not necessarily have put it as second in importance after this.  More likely, they would have put forward one of the Ten Commandments, such as the first, which forbids having “strange gods” before the true God, or the commandment imposing the Sabbath.  

Jesus has been asked a question.  St. Matthew indicates that with it the Pharisee was testing him, that is, challenging him.  By speaking of this second commandment, Jesus responds with his own challenge, and not merely a theological one, but one which threatened the authority of the Pharisees.  Because of their origin as a sect founded by men, little real basis existed for their own interpretations.  Jesus, however, comes out directly on his own authority, as established by the the divine power evident in his miracles, and defines the second commandment.  In the verses following this reading, Matthew tells how Jesus manifested his own authority as divine through the Scriptures.  In doing this, the Lord pushes them to look beyond the narrow confines of their sect in order to take seriously the claims he makes about himself.

This love we owe God and our neighbor is not to reside in a mere feeling which will dwindle and perish without the nutrition furnished by good works. Love is either active and engaged and seeking opportunities to do good for the loved one, or it is nothing. Famously, 1 Corinthians 13, 4 is translated into English as “Love is patient, love is kind, etc.” but this is not correct. According to the Greek, we should read it as: “Love is being patient, love is acting kindly.” Love is not passive, waiting for a chance to act, but goes out looking to show itself through good works. It is tempered by nothing but prudence.

Let us truly love God by obeying the simple commandments he gives us, that leads us to eternal life. He gave His Son up to death to make eternal life possible for us, and to show us how much he loves us.