The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew 22:35-46
If you’re like me, you sometimes
lose perspective on what is most important in life. We get so busy, so distracted, and so worried
about what is going on around us at the moment at home, at work, or wherever that
we sometimes lose sight of the big picture, and instead focus on small things
that aren’t really crucial. So we end up
wasting our time and energy on what really isn’t very important.
The Pharisees were experts at missing the big picture,
especially of interpreting the Old Testament law in such rigid detail that they
ignored the true point of the commandments.
When one of them asked the Lord to name the greatest commandment in the
law, he was apparently trying to trap Christ in a complicated argument. But the Lord wasn’t about to play that game;
He wasn’t about to waste time and energy in pointless speculation that served
only to confuse people. Instead, He got
to the heart of the matter: He quoted
from the book of Deuteronomy, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” That fundamental, and often overlooked,
central teaching of the Jewish faith is the first and great commandment,
according to Christ.
But our Savior wasn’t done yet. He added a second commandment “that is like
it,” taken from the book of Leviticus: ”You
shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
And He concluded that all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two
commandments. In other words, the 10
Commandments given to Moses and all the other legal material of the Old
Testament, together with all the prophetic teachings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah,
Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos and the rest of the prophets, grow from these two basic
commandments: to love God with every
ounce of our being and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Jesus Christ got to the heart of the matter, for He knew
that the law and the prophets were intended to direct the people to communion
with God, to loving fellowship and union with Him which would include their
relationships with one another. Remember
His teaching in the Sermon on the Mount:
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall
obtain mercy. Blessed are the
peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. In other words, those who are blessed in the
eternal life of the Kingdom are those who have been purified by the love of God
to the depths of their souls and who show that love in their relationships with
others.
No, Christ did not come to destroy the Law or the
Prophets, but to fulfill them. He called
His followers, and He calls us, to exceed the righteousness of the
Pharisees. That doesn’t mean that we
will follow more laws than they did, but that the meaning and purpose of the
Law will be fulfilled in us: that we
will grow in the likeness of God, that we will be united fully with Him through
love; that His love will overflow into every relationship that we have and will
become present in the world through us. In other words, we will become holy through
the love of God and neighbor; indeed, that’s what true holiness means, to be
purified in love and union with God and with one another.
Though we may not yet have the eyes to see it, our entire
life in the Church—and every bit of our life in the world as Christians—presents
an opportunity to grow in holiness through the love of God and neighbor. Indeed, that’s the point of it all: of our services, our prayers at home, our
fasting, our feasting, our generosity to the poor, our forgiveness of others,
our marriages and family life, our recreation, and all our work on the job or
at school. They are all part of
fulfilling our most fundamental calling:
to grow in the likeness of God, to become partakers of the Divine
Nature, to grow in loving union with the Holy Trinity and with one another.
But that may sound strange. After all, we work to make a living. We go to school to learn and to prepare to
make a living. We spend time with
friends and family, play games and watch sports or listen to music because we
like to. We don’t often think of these
activities as religious at all. So what
do they have to do with growing in holiness or fulfilling the commandments?
Well, the answer is found when we remember that the
Incarnate Son of God became a human being with a real body in order to bless,
heal, and sanctify us and everything about us and our world. In His
resurrection Christ conquered every corruption and distortion of our fallen
humanity, and has now ascended into heaven as the God-Man, showing us our
destiny for life eternal. The good news
of the gospel is that every single bit of our life presents an opportunity to share
in His sanctification of our humanity, to grow in love of God and neighbor, to
continue on the path trod by our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ.
For example, who isn’t worried about the economy these
days and how it impacts our businesses, our livelihood, and our personal
finances? We don’t like to hear or say
it, but bad economic times remind us not to worship the Almighty Dollar and not
to look for fulfillment and peace in money or possessions. We are called to love God with all our heart,
soul, and mind, not to love wealth or worldly success. And when times are hard, we are reminded to
place our trust in Him, not in what is here today and gone tomorrow and can
never truly satisfy us.
If we want to love our neighbors as ourselves, we never
have to look far at all. Every person
whom we meet is a living icon of Christ and is called to life eternal. No matter the circumstance, whenever we put
someone else’s interest above our own, whenever we are generous with our time,
our attention, or our resources, whenever we help someone in any way, we serve
Christ and grow at least a bit in the divine likeness. No matter our age, gender, occupation, or circumstances,
we all have the opportunity each day to love our neighbors as ourselves and
Christ in our neighbors.
And
in relation to the Church, let’s remember above all not to be like the
Pharisees. They loved to keep score on
how righteous they were in comparison to others. They thought that obeying laws was an end in
itself. Unfortunately, it’s possible to
go through all the motions of religion without love for God and neighbor. It’s possible to miss the point entirely and
to become a self-righteous, legalistic judge of others. But that’s to miss the point entirely, for
we fast, pray, come to Church, and lead upright lives not in order to impress
God or other people. Instead, in
humility and repentance, we want Christ to train our souls, to shape our lives
in His image. The point is not simply to
follow a bunch of laws, but to grow in love for God and neighbor through the
worship and way of life taught by the Body of Christ, the Church, by the power
of the Holy Spirit.
When
we make the time to pray daily and to come to Liturgy on Sundays and Feast
days; when we confess ours sins and prepare conscientiously to receive
Communion; when we wrestle with our passions through fasting or other forms of
self-denial; when we humble ourselves to serve others and to ask for their
forgiveness when we offend them; when we live faithfully—though imperfectly—as
Christ’s followers, we grow in the love of God and neighbor, and we shine a bit
more brightly with the holy light of Christ.
Then we grow in union with the Lord and His righteousness and, despite
our unworthiness, we share in Christ’s fulfillment of the Law and the
Prophets. That is what our life as human
beings is about, and it is possible because the Son of God really has become
one of us so that we may become more like Him, being truly perfected in love.
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