The Christians of Matthew’s community welcome nonJews among them but find themselves in conflict with people of their own ancestry. Matthew uses Mark’s gospel to write his own. The changes Matthew makes in his version of Sunday’s gospel suggest the community for whom he writes is experiencing conflict.
In Mark’s gospel a scribe asks which law is greatest because he likes Jesus’ teachings on other topics. He agrees with Jesus’ answer. Jesus in turn assures the scribe he is not far from the kingdom of God. Matthew replaces the friendly scribe with a lawyer who wants to test Jesus.
The law of Moses in the first five books of the Old Testament contains 613 laws. Some of these laws state basic moral imperatives, but many other laws describe specific cases. For instance, what if a farmer’s ox gets mired in mud on the Sabbath? Does saving the ox break the third commandment, which requires resting from work on Sabbath?
The Pharisees, like lawyers today, had to apply the law to new questions. Books recording cases line the libraries of law offices. Each past case offers potential precedents in new cases.
As law develops and evolves, people must ask as the Pharisee does in Sunday’s gospel: what is foundational? The Romans’ destruction of the Jewish temple in A.D. 70 creates a radical break with Israel’s past religious traditions. When Matthew writes in the A.D. 80s, this break intensifies the question — on what foundation do we build the future?
Jesus answers the question of what is basic with the verb love, a call into relationship and community. He quotes two commandments long on Israel’s books, Deuteronomy 6.5 and Leviticus 19.18. Love must characterize our most fundamental relationship with God and all others.
- What other verbs say “love” to you?
- What demonstrates love most convincingly to you?
Jesus’ first commandment identifies three dimensions of the human person — heart, spirit, and mind. Heart represents the whole self. All of us human beings must size up what we believe about what is and will be. The Latin word credo (I believe) originates from two root words — cor (heart) and do (to give). To what or whom do we give our hearts as the sure foundation of our lives? Jesus’ first commandment calls us to set our hearts on nothing less than God.
In the word soul the first commandment recognizes we humans are conscious, spiritual beings. We exist without having made ourselves and must ask throughout our lives for what purpose. We often long for those we love when we are apart yet never succeed in fully communicating when we talk face to face. We live in mystery that we experience within ourselves and with others. We desire our loves to last forever but must trust those we cherish to the promises of Jesus. There is more to each of us than any but the Ultimate Other can touch.
Mind is our third human capacity to bring to loving God. We humans have minds, so we can think about what really matters, envision what the world is about. The great commandment calls us to use our minds, to construct our best vision and farthest goal, to laugh at failure, remember success, to cry, sing, dance, praise, to start over and over.
- What sustains your heart and its commitment to God?
- What nourishes your spirit and opens you to the mystery of God’s presence?
- How do you use your head in loving God?
Jesus’ second great commandment makes explicit that love of God is inseparable from love of neighbor and love of self. The Ten Commandments have the same two divisions. The first three describe how to love God and the other seven describe how to love neighbors. When people live the commandments, they create a community. They worship God and no other; they rest from enslaving work; they honor parents and respect others’ marriages, property, reputations, and lives.
Gospel love is not an idea or an emotion but an imperative — a call to act. The great commandments recognize that acts of love weave us into community, just as selfish and violent acts fray the social fabric. The commandments are more than rules to keep and thereby gain heaven. The actions to which they call us are the hammer and nails of Christian community.
Christian life is social, Pope Francis reminds us in Joy of the Gospel (177-179). The evangelization to which the pope calls us starts with recognizing God’s love for us, love we cannot help but share. At the heart of the gospel is life in community and engagement with others. No one is alien.
- How can we fail to share God’s love for us with others?
- Who that you once considered different have you treated as a neighbor?