Sunday Gospel Comment
Alberic Jacovone OSB
YEAR A THIRTIETH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - 27.10.02 Ex 22,20-26; 1 Thess 1,5-10; Mt 22,34-40 Can love be disconcerting? The debate’s controlling point: At first, today’s Gospel may seem trivial and obvious, as Jesus reassures his interlocutor on a simple question about which is the greatest commandment in the Bible: a simple question to which Jesus provides a simple answer: love God above all and love neighbour, since he is like you, equal to you in every dignity. But the debate is held at a far deeper level. We are still locked in a fierce debate between Jesus and the Jewish Temple Authorities who demand an explanation of Jesus: ‘On whose Authority’ has He expelled the people who were buying & selling in the Temple, accusing them for turning the house of prayer into a den of thieves? . They have already asked insincere questions about: the tribute to Caesar, the woman with seven husbands, the dignity of the Messiah to come. Now they trick him on the question of the greatest commandment. We must keep in mind that while this is happening, Jesus himself and Matthew after Jesus, are themselves confronting the Judaism of their time, for failing to reach out to other nations, and to include every human being on earth -& Caesar himself- in God’s loving plan who wants all people to be saved. Their idea of love never went into immortality, beyond dealings of daily experience. And besides they failed to understand that the Messiah, when it came, was far more that a descendant of king David (‘David’s son’): indeed he is David’s Lord and the very Son of God. The question about the greatest commandment in the Bible was valid at the time of the Gospel as it is valid in every age. It was a genuine concern, not only among the Torah-Teachers at Jesus’ time, when people complained that the laws were simply too many (363 prohibitions + 248 commandments) At Jesus’ time the conservative School of Shammai prevailed in Jerusalem and refused to admit that all these prohibitions and commandments could be summed up into one guiding principle. However, the liberal School of Hilled, who lived in the land outside of Israel (Diaspora), and was still teaching when Jesus was a teenager, maintained the view to the contrary. The position of Hillel is contained in the famous story from Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 31A): One day a pagan person asked Hillel to explain the Jewish Law to him, while he stood on one leg; and Hillel gave his answer way before the pagan’s leg might become tired: "what you hate for yourself, do not to your neighbour. This is the whole Law. the rest is commentary. Go and learn it." The question about love of God & neighbour, however, goes way beyond the time of Jesus; it touches every situation where traditional and liberal views are opposed and imposed one against the other; and it has enormous relevance for us today. The question was asked ‘to disconcert Jesus’ and is meant to disturb us also, as today we are still challenged as to who is neighbour and who is God for us. Matthew himself tells the story at this point of the Gospel, to emphasize the contrast, not only between Jesus and his opponents, but also between the converts from Judaism (Judaizers) and those from Pagan people in the community of his time. He agrees with Hillel in condemning traditionalists, as people who believe that God belongs only those who embrace the Jewish faith: and only these they call ‘neighbours’. For Matthew, Christianity has a new mandate and a new conviction: that God is the Father of all, in and out of the Land of Israel; and that people of every race, creed and culture are called to live in peace, as neighbours, side by side. This point is of the essence of Christianity; you can only take or leave it. ______________________________________ |
