Friday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

In the gospel reading, the Pharisees try to disconcert Jesus with a question, ‘Master, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ It was a serious question that required a considered response. Jesus had no hesitation in answering it. Indeed, he gave more than he was asked. The Pharisees asked for the greatest commandment in the Law. Jesus responded by giving the two greatest commandments in the Law. Jesus not only declared them to be the two greatest commandments but announced that ‘the whole Law and the Prophets also’ hang upon them. The Law and the Prophets constituted almost all of the Jewish Scriptures at that time. Jesus was making quite a claim for these two commandments. He was affirming that everything in the Jewish Scriptures can be reduced to God’s double commandment of love. Everything else is a commentary on this commandment. Only God is to be loved with all our heart, soul and mind, in other words, with all our being and life energy. God has loved us into being and God’s love sustains us in being in this life and beyond, and only God is worthy of our total and complete love. The first reading from Ezekiel reminds us that God’s love is a life-giving love, a love that breathes new life into our dry bones and dried up spirits. When we respond to God’s love by loving God with all our being, we become fully alive. Jesus insists that this complete love of God is inseparable from loving others as if they were extensions of ourselves. God’s life-giving love for us is to flow through us to embrace others, including those who are very different from us, even our enemies. We are to love others in the way God loves them. There is a wonderful vision here of God’s purpose for our lives and if we were to surrender to it God’s kingdom would come on earth.