Word to the Wise
Sunday, October 25, 2020 - 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time - A
[Exod 22:20-26; 1 Thess 1:5c-10; Matt 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?" [Jesus] 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 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." [Matthew]
The great Carmelite mystic, St. John of the Cross, once wrote: "in the evening of life, we shall be judged on love alone." Out of the 613 precepts of the Mosaic Law, Jesus pointed to two that sum up and are the foundation of all the rest - love of God and neighbor. In the Gospel According to Luke, the same inquiry by a "scholar of the law" led to that inquirer trying to define "neighbor" so as to "justify himself." Jesus replied with the parable of the Good Samaritan.[Luke 10:25-37]. Our neighbor is anyone. The Book of Exodus, in today's first scripture, provides some very practical examples of love of neighbor, one of which is definitely neuralgic in our current public debates concerning immigration: "You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for your were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt...."
The gospels portray Jesus as cutting through all the intricacies of the Mosaic Law to show the foundation of all his teaching. That foundation is love of God and neighbor. The Last Judgment scene in the Gospel According to Matthew provides a list of persons who cry out for compassionate love. Jesus identifies his very self with those persons! [Matt. 25:31-45]. The First Letter of John [4:20-21] puts it very succinctly: If anyone says, 'I love God,' but hates his brother or sister, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother or sister."
In the current toxic political atmosphere of our nation, the gospel is struggling to be heard. Where is the love of God and neighbor in all of this? The words of St. John of the Cross are worth remembering: "In the evening of life, we shall be judged on love alone." AMEN