A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 22:34-40)
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
In today’s Gospel, Jesus responds to a Pharisee, who comes to test him. Having heard that Jesus silenced the Sadducees, he comes to Jesus to contend with him, to measure Jesus’ knowledge of the law against his own overinflated view of himself. In what way did Jesus silence the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection? One can only imagine that Jesus’ reply to the Pharisee silences him as well when he says: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” In what particular way does Jesus, the same Lord who hears the cry of the poor, invite us to imitate his love and compassion?
Father in heaven, as I consider the words “with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind,” I am overwhelmed with this high calling to love you. Without that kind of love, it is impossible to turn to others and love them as myself. Give me the grace to be compassionate to others as a way to dwell in the freeing love you command me to follow. In turn, help me love you completely so that I know in word and deed what it is to love my neighbor as myself. Here is where trust is vital. As in the responsorial psalm, I ask you to be my strength: “I love you, O LORD, my strength, O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.”
From the Gospel acclamation: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, says the Lord, and my Father will love him and we will come to him.”
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.