Sunday Gospel Reflection, October 29, 2023: Which commandment in the law is the greatest?

Which commandment in the law is the greatest?

... and how does it reflect our obligations
to God and to one another? 

   Many chapters of the Book of Exodus are devoted to the covenant and to the laws designed to help the people of Israel maintain that covenant. The Lord clearly informs the people that, in order to be in right relationship with him, the people must also be in right relationship with their neighbor: You shall not molest or oppress an alien. You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. Take care of one another, in other words: the neighbor who has no legal rights is still your responsibility! If the people want to remain in covenant with the Lord, they must act as the Lord does, with compassion and love: If your neighbor cries out to me, I will hear him, the Lord says, for I am compassionate. Acting in imitation of the God they worship, the people will become the compassionate neighbor each other needs. 

   The law laid out in Exodus was complicated. In Matthew’s Gospel, a scholar of the law tests Jesus with what seems to be a simple question: which commandment in the law is the greatest? Jesus’ response distills all 613 precepts of the Pharisees into two straightforward statements: love the Lord, your God and love your neighbor as yourself. Imitation of the Lord is participation in God’s life, as Paul reminds the Thessalonians, who became a model for all the believers in their region. God loves all God created; if we imitate the Lord, we too must be conduits of that love for all. 

   It’s one thing to love God with all that is in you, and to say, as in Psalm 18, I love you, Lord, my strength. It’s quite another to love your neighbor as yourself. We can only do this if we are compassionate as God is compassionate; we must embrace our responsibility for our neighbor as profoundly as the Lord does. Like the Thessalonians, we must strive to be a living example to our world, through imitation of Christ, in all we do and say, and in all we live. Which commandment is the greatest? The commandment of love.  

This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture Class. 
Image source:  www.wordclouds.com