Homily Ordinary 30A: Loving God and those he loves

Homily for 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A 2017 

Exodus 22:20-26; 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10; Matthew 22:34-30 

Introduction 

English has several phrases to express the basic elements of something. 

• We talk about the bottom line to describe the “essential and salient point.” 
• Or we ask for the meat and potatoes of something, when all we want to know is the “the most interesting or fundamental part.” 
• But we also talk about the crux of the matter or the nub of the problem. 

If you were looking for the bottom line, the meat and potatoes, the crux and nub of Christianity, you will find in Jesus' answer to the lawyer in today's gospel. 

Scripture and Theology 

Although his intention is to test Jesus, when the lawyer asks the question, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" he is really asking about the most essential law for a follower of God.  Wouldn’t we all want to know, which among the many laws of God in the Old Testament, those of the New Testament, and then those of the Church, which of them is the most important? 

In answering the lawyer and answering us, the Lord does not pick this or that commandment, but goes to what should be at the root and heart of all commandments.  Jesus goes back to the tradition, specifically to Deuteronomy 6:5 and pulls out this injunction of God: "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”  And he says: “This is the greatest and the first commandment.” 

For a person of faith, this should make sense.  God must come first, must be the centre of our lives, since he created us, he sent us a saviour and he continues to provide for us.  Any law that does not in some way love God is not worth its salt.  Behind every law must be the desire to love God, with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our minds, that is, love him completely. 

But there is more.  Although the lawyer asked for one commandment, Jesus gives him two.  For the other greatest commandment, Jesus draws from another Old Testament book, Leviticus 19:18 to say: “The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Just like with the first one, any law that does not in some way do good for a neighbour is not worth its salt. 

But why does Jesus include this second commandment about love of neighbour at all?  And why does he say it is like the first the commandment?  I recently heard a story about a married couple, who for years went to the opera.  Several years into their marriage, however, it slipped accidentally from the mouth of the husband, that he did not like opera at all.  When the wife asked him, "why then did you go with me all these years?" he said: “I loved the opera, because you love the opera and I love you.”  That is when the wife also said, “I too only went to the opera, because I thought you loved it and since I loved you, I had to love it.”  They cancelled their season tickets. 

Similarly, the second greatest commandment enjoins us to love our neighbour, even our despicable neighbour, because we love God and God loves our neighbour.  The spouses in the story I told you, loved the opera, not in itself, but because they loved the person who loved it or who they thought loved it.  That makes sense, but sometimes we are tempted to love only the neighbour that is likeable, cute, useful, pretty, intelligent.  But the real reason we must love our neighbour is because this commandment is based on the first one – we love our neighbours because we love God and God loves them. 

And that is why often God commands us to love neighbours that we would not naturally be inclined to love.  Today’s first reading gives us a few examples of neighbours we must love as we love ourselves because God loves them: 

• About migrants and refugees God says: "You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.” 
• He also says: “You shall not wrong any widow or orphan,” who are now left alone without a husband and father to care for them. 
• And for the poor who you happen to lend money or other help, God says: “You shall not act like an extortioner toward” them. 

Jesus also in the parable of the Last Judgement names the kind of neighbours we must help and in so doing we shall indeed be loving him: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me” (Mt. 25:35-36). 

It should not surprise us therefore, that throughout the history of the Church, Christians have not only preached the message of loving God particularly in belief and worship, but have also lived this message of love in the schools, hospitals, orphanages, soup-kitchens that provide a concrete way to love our neighbour.  In this country the Church continues to do that especially through its principal organs, Catholic Charities and Catholic Relief Services.  And we do this not because the people we serve deserve it, but because God loves them too. 

Jesus concludes his answer to the lawyer by saying: “The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments:” love of God and love of neighbour.  This message is seen even in the way these two commandments summarize the Ten Commandments: 

• When we keep the first three commandments, the commandments of the first tablet of Moses, we are in fact loving God: by worshipping him alone, by not profaning his name and by keeping the Lord’s Day holy. 
• When we keep the last seven commandments, the commandments of the second tablet of Moses, we are in fact loving our neighbour: by respecting our parents and elders, protecting life, observing marital fidelity, respecting the property of others, speaking the truth, avoiding envy of others’ property and spouses. 

And so, we must not see the law as obstacle to our happiness, but rather as the concrete means for me to show my love for God and my neighbour. 

Christian Life and Conclusion 

We must also resist the temptation to separate our love of God and our love of neighbour.  It is not a multiple choice.  It is not either one or the other.  It is both . . . and.   

I will give the last word to the First Letter of St. John who says: 

We love because he first loved us. 

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. 

This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother (1 John 4:19-21).