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Mass Homily by Fr. Raymond
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| October, falling leaves |
Saint Matthew 22:34-40.
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees ...
The
Gospel scene opens with a collusion between the Scribes and the Pharisees to
get the better of Jesus. As far as they
were concerned he was just a young upstart of a wandering preacher who was
stealing the respect of the crowds away from themselves who were, in their own
eyes, the true guardians of Israel’s
law. Normally these two groups hated each
other and would have nothing to do with each other. They both had different theological
viewpoints, especially about the resurrection of the body. The wily St Paul used this difference to his
own advantage when they both accused him at his trial before the Romans of
being a trouble maker.
However,
Jesus it seems, doesn’t take this matter
any further because the question they asked of him was such an important one
and he didn’t want to confuse the issue of a basic answer to a basic question,
even though the question wasn’t asked in good faith. They were only trying to set a trap for him. They
knew very well what was the greatest commandment: the commandment that came
from the Book of Deuteronomy: “ Thou shalt love the lord thy God with all thy
heart and all thy soul and all thy strength”.
This basic commandment, even though it is
pre-christian, seems at first sight to be impossible of fulfilment even in the
Christian era! Who could ever aspire to
love the lord God with all his heart
and all his soul and all his strength? Jesus immaculate Mother herself would seem to
be the only one who could aspire to such heights. But God doesn’t ask the impossible of
us. At the same time as giving us this
commandment he gives us an inner power, not only to fulfil it but even to
surpass it. He gives us the gift of his
divine spirit poured into our hearts so that we now have his own divine power within
us with which to love. By the gift of
this Spirit we are caught up into the very ambit of the Divine life of Love
itself.
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