Reflection on the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time year A.

Exodus 22:21-27; 1Thessanians 1:5c – 10; Mt 22: 34-40

THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT

As we now head towards the end of the liturgical year our focus should be on what is more important for us? What could be the summary of Christ’s teaching? What is it that we cannot live our Christian Faith without jeopardizing our identity as a Christian? In a context where we really live in a crisis of love for our neighbor in our world today, we thank the Pharisees for bringing up this question to Jesus. “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?” Was it to entrap Jesus like in Mathew 22:15-20 last Sunday? “Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entrap him in speech…” If Jesus chooses only one commandment among others; they will conclude that he has thrown the rest away. They also might have found the amount of the 613 commandments very bothersome to be recited every day and to be put into practice.

For the Jewish people, the commandments refer to either: the Decalogue, which Augustine considers as “the summary and epitome of the entire law of God," the Pentateuch (The 5 Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Number, Leviticus and Deuteronomy), or the entire Jewish Scriptures (The Old Testament) and 613 laws (Mitzvot) put out by the teachers of the law.

Jesus as the one who fulfills the law, gives us on this Sunday the compendium of our Christian identity. He goes back from the Jewish scriptures: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deut 6:4-5). The people in the Old Testament did not only know that the Lord is one, but they were also aware that one shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any other person and they shall love their neighbor as themselves (Cf Leviticus 19:18). Jesus reminds us that true Christianity consists in love of God and love of neighbor as yourself. Yet the true love of God is expressed in the way we treat the neighbor just as God is treating us. Christianity is the summary and the meaning of the law. it is a real application of the Golden Rule: “Treat others as you would like them to treat you” (Mt 7:12). People must always use themselves as a yardstick.

The Book of Exodus in the first reading is saying exactly that when it reminds the Israelites not to wrong or oppress a stranger for they were strangers in the land of Egypt; not to afflict any widow or orphans, any poor for they are directly under God’s care and protection. Love is what matters. We must love God as he has loved us. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another”. (John 13:34) To truly love is indeed becoming imitators of Christ. For St Augustine says: “Such love is impossible for human beings without the help of grace — it is a gift & one of the three theological virtues”

Our entire life, that is, our worship, our relationship, choices, our service to the community, our commitment must be motivated by the love of God and the love of neighbors. That is the greatest commandment. A life without love is like an engine without oil, actions without faith, marriage without love, a body without a soul. Do we make love the core element of our Christian identity?

There is a story of one of my friends Stanley and his wife, Jeanette. As they were driving back home, Jeanette turned to Stanley and asked, “Eh Honey, did you notice Nancy who was just in front of us. She seems to be adding some weight. She is not married; do you think she is pregnant?” And Stanley, “I did not notice dear my dear”. After a few minutes, she asked: “Did you notice how short Suzanne’s skirt was. At her age, really?” What bothers me is that she dresses that way to Church! Again, Stanley said: “My dear I’m not sure, I noticed what Suzanne was wearing today” Then after a few more second, she turned again to the husband and said: “Hmm Stanley, I am sure you noticed Robert’s kids, how they were crawling over everything and distracting everyone at mass today.” Stanley said: “ha Robert’s kids! I am not sure I noticed that''. At that point, his wife turned to him, shook her head and said: “Honestly, Stanley, I don't even know why you go to Church anymore. You don’t notice anything.”

This story questions our motivations as for why we go to Church. Why do we live? What are our true motivations as we relate to others? Love should always be our motivation and heaven our goal. Let us love always and everything will fall into place.

Lord, teach us to love as you love. Amen.

Fr. Georges Roger BIDZOGO SAC

Reflection for the 29 th Sunday in ordinary Time year A. Is 45:4-6; 1 Thes 1:1-5b; Ps95; Mt 22:15-21

A win-win with God?

Context.

Sometimes there seems to be a great tension between our “being” Christians and our involvement in the life of the city. Sometimes we seem to separate what is secular to what is religious. In light of today's readings, we see uses all that he has created for the fulfillment of his plan and his glory. In the first reading (Isaiah 45, 1. 4-6), the temple had been destroyed in 587 by Nebuchadnezzar and the Jewish been in exile for 50 years. Yet Cyrus, the Persian King is the new world’s king who rules with a humanitarian heart. He does not kill those he has conquered; he does not destroy whatever he finds on his way. Whenever he finds the exiles in a new territory, he sends them back to their homeland and helps them to rebuild their country. Isaiah’s prophecy comes in this context of despair. He wants to give hope to the exile people of Israel. “Thus says the Lord, to his Messiah Cyrus to whom he has given power to subdue nations…”

God is sovereign and all-powerful

The message of Isaiah is that: 1) God is faithful. He can never abandon his chosen one. He says: “Because of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen one, I called you by your name”. 2) God is sovereign above all. “I am the Lord your God; beside me, there is no other”. Everything belongs to him. All people belong to him including the kings of the earth. So God will definitely use Cyrus to bring his people and to rebuild the temple. God is master of every situation, we must never despair. That is why the responsorial Psalm sings the hope of the people: “Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing his wonders among all nations'' (Psalm 95,1). Again, besides God, the world is nothing; our history and our existence is nothing. The advice of St. Paul to the Thessalonians applies to us today. Our faith must remain active. We must put love for God and one another into practice. Our hope must stand firm in the Lord for God is all-powerful and must always be at the center of our life.

Are we hypocrites?

The question of the centrality of God is addressed in a tricky way in today’s gospel. There, we see the Pharisees and Herodians, who were two opposed groups, approaching Jesus with a question in order to trap him. “Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” Jesus reverse the roles against them. “ why are you testing Me, you hypocrites?” “Show me the coin that pays the census tax” “Whose image is on this coin?” To which the crow replied: “Caesar”. Then Jesus replied, “repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God”. What a honest and wise answer. We should never try to trap Jesus. He is God-himself. In both situations, Jesus would have been accused. On one hand, if he says ‘yes' , he could be considered betrayer of his own people because paying Roman taxes is a sacrilege, a blasphemy for the Jewish already paying a tithe to the Lord. On the other hand, if he says: “no”, he could be considered as a trouble maker or an insurgent who is trying to cause a rebellion against the Roman occupant. They know the truth but are only being hypocrites. Are you a hypocrite?

Whose image is on this coin?

The symbol of the coin with the image of Caesar is a powerful answer to them and to us today. By asking the deanery, Jesus is referring to a particular kind of coin with the profile of the emperor Tiberius with the inscription written: “Caesar Augustus Tiberius, son of the divine Augustus”. In the first century, Julius Caesar and Augustus were regarded as sons of the divine by even the Romans. By this, Jesus is on one hand asking us to accomplish the civil duty of paying taxes and participating for the well-being of our society. That is what belongs to Caesar. On the other hand Jesus is also reminding us that just as the image of Caesar is engraved on the coin, so is the image and likeness of God is engraved in us (Genesis 1:26-27). While giving to Caesar what belongs to Caesar to contribute to the building of communities, we give ourselves totally to God in whose image we are made. Jesus invites us to love the Lord with our heart, mind and soul (Mt 22:37). It means, everything that we are and own, our families, our leisures, our political stand, our choices and the choices for our families must always glorify God in whose image we are made. No win-win game. God is always the winner. Ask the Lord to give you the grace and the strength to return to him with your whole life. St. Augustine once said: “In the same way as Caesar looks for his image on a coin, God looks for his in your soul.”

Prayer: Come Holy Spirit. Renew my faith, and take Lordship over my life!

Fr. Georges Roger BIDZOGO SAC