Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
We are in another election cycle, and candidates for office are asked what they stand for and what matters most to them. Their opponents try to get them to commit to a single value, so they can accuse them of neglecting other values. Are you for cutting taxes or supporting the poor? Strong government or free enterprise?
Though Jesus is not running for office, his critics also try to trip him up. No matter which of the over 600 laws of the Torah he picks as most important, they will find fault with him for not choosing one of the others. Which is most important: to adhere to the dietary laws, to keep the Sabbath, or to defy pagan influences?
As usual, Jesus surprises his critics. Instead of one law, he chooses two, and the two he chooses command something that can hardly be legislated. But he did reveal his core values and what was most important to him. The greatest law, Jesus says, is love. We are to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and love our neighbor as ourselves.
In effect, Jesus did not really pick one or even two laws of the Torah; he picked them all and revealed for the first time what God’s intention was in giving each of the laws: to train us to love God and neighbor. When we treat the alien with respect and compassion, when we stop work on the Sabbath, or give the poor person each night the cloak he gave as security on a loan–all these legal actions are exercises of love, training us to give ourselves to God and neighbor.
St. Paul had a negative view of the Jewish law: its purpose was to expose our inability to achieve salvation on our own, since we could not possibly fulfill all the law. In this passage, Jesus presents a more positive view of the law: its purpose is to guide us to love. All of Jesus’ teaching–the Sermon on the Mount, the command to turn the other cheek, to be a good Samaritan, to wash one another’s feet–all his “laws” were meant to teach us to love. That is the reason he sent his Spirit and established his Church: to guide us in the way of love. That is why he died for us and rose from the dead: to show us by example the way of love.
Reflection by Fr. Benedict Neenan, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections