(See the readings for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time)
Jesus is being tested again in this week’s Gospel passage — this time by the Pharisees. The scholar of the law is trying to trap Jesus and put Him in a situation where no matter what He says will put Him at odds with the law.
One way of looking at the lawyer’s machinations is that since all the laws of the covenant have their origin in God, then they all are equal. If so, how could one rise to the top or be more important than another? In later Judaism, an actual number was assigned to the laws of the covenant, not 10 (as in the Ten Commandments or Ten Words which are acknowledged as coming directly from God) but 613.
Jesus breaks through this by naming the two commandments that are the foundation for all the others: love of God and love of neighbor. In Jesus’ words: “The whole law and prophets depend on these two commandments.”
The first reading from Exodus gives some of the specific laws related to love of neighbor. These involve the alien (stranger or foreigner), the widow and orphan. Perhaps the first one mentioned, the alien, may need some more attention in today’s world. The Lord commands the Israelites “not to molest or oppress” these people by reminding them that “you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.”
In the ancient world these three groups of people (the aliens, widows and orphans) are the ones in most need of help. They cannot survive without the help of others in the community. They have no family or extended family, no spouse or no parents to help them with food, clothing or shelter. They do not have the means to live on their own without the compassion, generosity, assistance and aid of others outside their families. They need help.
Hence the command is so direct: “If you ever wrong them and they cry to me, I will surely hear their cry. My wrath will flare up ….” The second set of laws deals with loving one’s neighbor within the community, particularly with lending aid without seeking recompense. Aid them as an act of love, freely, not as a means for income. The love of neighbor entails loving as God loves, with compassion.
In the Gospel, Jesus cites the two commandments from the Torah or Pentateuch (five books). The first is from Deuteronomy where he references the shema (6:4-9). The second is from Leviticus 19:18 as the answer to the lawyer’s question.
We hear Matthew’s rendering in the Gospel this Sunday. In St. Luke’s account, Jesus follows with an illustration. He tells the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). It comes as a response to the lawyer’s question: “And who is my neighbor?” After the story, Jesus asks the lawyer, “Which of these three (the priest, the Levite, or the Samaritan) was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” (Luke 10:36) The lawyer responds: “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus then says to him: “Go and do likewise.”
What about love of God? Jesus, in articulating these two commandments as the greatest, binds them together so that both are necessary for understanding the way of life that God offers to humanity. In Him we find perfect communion. Father, Son and Spirit exist in perfect harmony, three persons in one God. Through Jesus we enter into this divine union of love.
As we live in this communion the love shared is extended to everyone. As God’s love is universal and knows no bounds, so also our love. In loving our neighbor, we are loving God. Our praise of and gratitude toward God for His love is expressed in worship, prayer, thanksgiving and in love of neighbor.
Compassion and mercy are the ways in which this is most concretely realized. St. John in his first letter will go as far to say: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20).
Jesus answers the Pharisee’s question and in doing so gives the fundamental law of love. He lives this law in word and deed. He calls us to do the same: to love as we are loved, to forgive as we are forgiven.
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Msgr. Joseph Prior is pastor of St. Dorothy Parish in Drexel Hill and a former professor of Sacred Scripture and rector of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. Read more reflections by Msgr. Prior here.
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