30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Exodus 22:20-26 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10 Matthew 22:34-40
We read again of the hostile reaction in Jerusalem to the teachings and activity of Jesus. The Gospel reading of last Sunday recounted how Jesus had caught out the Sadducees at their own game. In today’s reading from the Gospel of Matthew the Pharisees try their best to catch him out by posing what they consider an awkward question. These Pharisees loved debate and considered themselves on safe ground in debate because of their self-righteous attitude. Their compliance with the worldly laws gave them a sense of justification. Very often, when we debate with people who consider themselves Atheists, we find that they have done their research. They may seem to know more about Church doctrine and Church matters than we do ourselves. They have the facts and figures at the tip of the tongue! The inevitable question they pose is “Why can’t you prove that God exists?” Sometimes there is a genuine searching going on in their minds. Or perhaps they just want a debate or to find an excuse for their rejection of Church and religious practice.
The Pharisees loved a debate but they had ulterior motives for this debate. As with the Sadducees before them, they wanted to justify themselves in their own behaviour or, in some way, to water down the commandments and the law. They were hung up on Laws and restrictions. They had 613 precepts: 365 prohibitions, one for every day in a year; and 248 laws of direction, one for every bone in the body. They could not agree on whether there was one law that was key to all of the others.
We can imagine the nodding of heads in agreement and satisfaction when Jesus said that the greatest commandment of the Law is “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind”. But then Jesus emphasised the necessary connection between love of God and love of neighbour: “You must love your neighbour as yourself”. Their practice of religion had only a vertical dimension; justifying themselves before God and putting a show of respect and piety.
Jesus shows how religion must have a balance. In loving our neighbour and all of God’s creation we show our Love for God and give God the glory. Jesus, without engaging in debate or without denigrating the efforts of those who questioned him, expressed the reality of what our relationship with God and the Law should be. He seemed to have little time for sterile debate and empty words. Nor did Saint Paul: “Have nothing to do with pointless philosophical discussions – they only lead further and further away from true religion” (2 Tim 2:16-17)
Theologians sitting behind desks surrounded by mountains of books can sometimes engage in such pointless discussions. As a well-known Irish theologian once said; “Jesus had no time for the sitting theology which never drives one to fall on one’s knees in humble adoration of God: which never makes one stand in the shoes of the poor; which never makes one walk with the zeal of a missionary”.
Religion is about God and about our sisters and brothers.