30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Fr Dominic’s Homily

Today’s Gospel is set in the last week of the life of Jesus. It is Tuesday of Holy week 3 days before he is crucified. We are still in the Temple in Jerusalem.

The Pharisees had heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees the day before with the Roman coin and so ask Jesus another question. Not because they genuinely wanted to know the answer of course, but to try and catch him out.

Why not just ask him a question in an open way to know the answer? That’s what all the crowds of people were doing and they loved what he had to say. Because they saw themselves as experts and felt threatened by him. So they have to test him - just as the devil tests Jesus in the desert.

Now the Pharisees had 613 commandments of law in their Torah. They covered all topics of life: what kind of food you could eat, what to wear, how to worship and even rules and regulations of warfare.

These were a constant source of discussion: what is allowed and what is not allowed, which of all these laws was the greatest, the most important, the most binding. This was the world of the Pharisees.

So a lawyer – that is a doctor of the Jewish Law - in today's gospel wants to get Jesus into this sort of a discussion, hoping that he'll be able to trick him, perhaps to make Jesus look foolish in the eyes of the listeners. So he asks Jesus: "Which is the greatest of the law's commandments?"

In other words can you try and crystallise and sum up the whole of the Torah? How smart are you really?

Now Jesus could have used any of the Ten Commandments many of which are laws concerning things you shouldn’t do. Instead he chooses from the positive Jewish laws of things you should do.

People often accuse us as Catholics as always saying no to things in life whereas the truth is that we are really saying a deeper yes to Gods law which we know is good for us.

So Jesus introduces utter simplicity into the morass of laws and regulations that cluttered up Jewish theology.

He reduces all the law to two commandments which he takes from the Torah: "Love God" and "Love your neighbour."

He gives the essence of the law and shows that love of God and love of the other are two basic aspects of the same call. There can never be a contradiction between the two.

He 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 actually the basis of the Shema prayer that the Jewish people would say 3 times a day. Its equivalent to the Our Father and so Jesus, Mary and Joseph would have all prayed this Shema prayer as good practising Jews.

What it means is that the love of God must be comprised of a total response of all that you have and all that you are. It’s a total gift of oneself to God.

Jesus then says that the second greatest law is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depends on these two commandments.”

In other words the fulfilment of the law and the message of the prophets is fruitless without first loving God and loving our Neighbour.

These two commandments are actually indivisible. To love God is to recognize His likeness and image in every neighbour and to love your neighbour is to also love God.

So the one most basic commandment that sums up all the rest is expressed in the word `love.' Jesus did not want Christianity to become a heartless conformity to a series of laws.

The motivation of Christian life should not to be a law to be feared, but a person to be loved, the person of God and the person of our neighbour.

And when we say love we don’t just mean warm feelings towards another. We mean choosing to see and help others in the right way.

True love is always more of a choice and a decision than a nice feeling. Without true commitment love will fail.

It was his love for the Father and his love for all of us that motivated Jesus to become a human being and allow our salvation.

So let us pray that our love of the Father and of our neighbour will be the primary goal of our lives and motivate all our thoughts, words and actions.