XXX Sunday of Ordinary Time A
Mt 22, 34-40
We are at the last of the three controversies stirred up by Jesus' opponents with the aim of getting him into trouble, of discrediting among the crowd his growing reputation as a prophet, which had gradually spread thanks to his deeds and words.
The first one (Mt 22:15-21) we heard last Sunday, regards the tribute to be given or not given to the emperor: Jesus had responded by shifting the level of the problem and inviting his interlocutors to look deeper, to see the image that everything bears within itself, to distinguish what bears the image of God and should be repaid to Him, and what instead bears the imprint of man, and should be treated as such.
The second (Mt 22:23-33) was about the resurrection of the dead: here, too, Jesus changes perspective, and reminds the Sadducees who question him that God is faithful to man's life, and this love-filled faithfulness is the foundation of hope in the resurrection.
Today (Mt 22:34-40), the question posed by a scribe concerns the Law, and he asks Jesus what the great commandment is.
I would like to dwell first on two points.
The first is that the question is very important, just as it was important, last Sunday, to be able to look well and be able to distinguish the image engraved on Caesar's coin.
To know which is the most important commandment is to have understood what is the way to a good life, to a beautiful life. It is not so much about fulfilling a duty, acquiring correct behavior, but knowing how to choose the road of life.
The second is that the way of life has to do with loving.
Jesus' answer, in fact, says that to have a good life one must know how to love.
God, first, loves man's life, as Jesus pointed out in the resurrection controversy.
And God, first, asks to be reciprocated in love, asks to be loved: not to be served, not to be honored, not to be worshiped. God asks for a relationship of love.
Finally, we dwell on some terms.
The scribe asks what the great commandment is (Mt 22:36).
Jesus answers by quoting a passage from the Book of Deuteronomy (6:4-8), but he also corrects the question: this, he says, is not only the great commandment, but it is also the first.
The word great reveals something important, meaning more important than everything else, which is smaller.
The first, on the other hand, says something that lays at the base, from which everything comes, something that does not stand alone. If there is a first, it means that, then, there are others.
And Jesus, in fact, immediately mentions the second, something the scribe had not asked him about: if the first commandment is to love God, the second is to love your neighbor, and he adds that these two commandments, the first and the second, together, are the foundation of everything, of the Law, of the Prophets, of life.
To understand this, we can be helped by the Word of the Prophets who have accompanied the History of Salvation: the great deception has always been to think that we can love God without having to love our brothers and sisters.
The great prophets were sent to remind us that this was absolutely not possible: God could not stand worship, a devotion made to Him that then left the poor at the door; He would not allow that we love Him and go down the path of injustice and iniquity.
And the scribe's question, asking what the great commandment is, is perhaps an echo of this deception, a remnant of this delusion, this claim.
The law for a good life cannot but hold these two commandments together: one cannot love God without loving one's brothers and sisters.
Indeed, Jesus goes a step further. If one wants to love God, the only way to love Him is to love one's brother, as we will see in a few Sundays, at the end of the liturgical year: with the judgment scene (Mt 25:31-46), Jesus will tell us that, after all, these two commandments coincide, and any gesture of love done to one's brother in gratuitousness will be considered as done to God.
Together, loving God and loving one's brother are the first commandments, a single commandment, the foundation from which everything flows.
+Pierbattista
