Word to the Wise
Saturday, August 12, 2023 - Saturday in the 18th Week in Ordinary Time
[Deut 6:4-13 and Matt 17:14-20]"Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest. Bind them at your wrist as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates." [Deuteronomy]
The first lines of this passage from today's first scripture from Deuteronomy are known as the Shema Israel and are considered the essence of Jewish prayer, to be recited, at least, on rising in the morning and retiring in the evening. Orthodox Jews may be seen wearing a small container in wrappings around their arms and one on their foreheads at prayer (phylacteries). When Jesus was asked about the most important of the 613 precepts of the law (Matt. 22:34-40), he mentions this one as the first, and the second, from Leviticus 19:9-18: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. In short, these two commandments are the foundation of Judaeo-Christian faith.
How are we to understand "love" in these two commandments? The parable of the Good Samaritan in the Gospel According to Luke 10:29-37 is a good place to start because Jesus is responding to a question about "neighbor." But is love of neighbor a form of love of God? One may go to Matthew 25:31-45, which is the parable of the Last Judgment. "Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me." We cannot separate love of God from love of neighbor. Liturgical worship and caring service of neighbor are two sides of the same coin. "Love," in this context is more than affectionate attraction. It is a way of life and we would be better off if we can remember this, like the shema, every day! AMEN