Gospel : St. Matthew xxii. 35-46.
AT that time, the Pharisees came nigh to Jesus: “And one of them, a doctor of the law, asked Him, tempting Him: Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets. And the Pharisees being gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying: What think you of Christ? Whose son is He? They say to Him: David's. He saith to them: How then doth David in spirit call Him Lord, saying: The Lord said to my Lord : Sit on My right hand until I make Thy enemies Thy footstool? If David then call Him Lord, how is He his son? And no man was able to answer Him a word; neither durst any man from that day forth ask Him any more questions. ”
Q. In what sense was the question of the Pharisee a temptation?
A. To understand the force and the malice of this question of the Pharisee, which the Gospel calls a temptation, it is necessary to know that in Christ’s time there was a question which was the greater obligation: to love God or to offer in the temple the sacrifices commanded by the law. Many were of the opinion that the first and greatest commandment was that of offering sacrifice in the temple. On this account the doctor of the law asked Jesus Christ which was the greatest commandment of the law, with the intention to induce Him to decide the question, with the danger to Himself of displeasing one or the other party, if He did not support His assertion by undeniable proof.
Q. What was Christ’s answer?
A. He answered that the first and greatest commandment was to love God above all things, with our whole heart, with our whole soul, and with all our strength.
Q. What do you think of this precept?
A. There is nothing more reasonable and just. God is perfection itself, the fountain and the source of all good; therefore He must be loved for what He is in preference to all other things, and He must be loved with our whole heart and with our whole soul, cost us what it may. God has created us for the sole purpose that we may love Him, and hereafter enjoy Him for all eternity as a reward of this love; therefore we are bound by the law of nature to love Him. God is the absolute Lord of our life and of all we have on this earth; therefore we are bound in justice to love Him. God has bestowed on us innumerable natural and supernatural benefits, and continues to do so; therefore we are bound to love Him out of gratitude, and if man would not love Him He would be worse than the brute animals, that show themselves grateful to those who feed them.
Q. Why did Christ say that the precept to love God is the first and greatest commandment?
A. Because charity is the greatest of the virtues, the root, the support, and the crown of all the others. Without charity, all the acts of devotion are nothing; without charity, patience, generosity, meekness, chastity, and all other good qualities avail nothing; without charity, we are objects of hatred in the sight of God. Hence St. Paul says: “If I should speak with the tongues of angels, if I possessed all knowledge, if I should distribute all my goods to the poor, if I worked miracles, if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, I am nothing more than a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal ” (i. Cor. xiii.).
Q. Which is the second great commandment?
A. Christ has told us what it is. It is to love our neighbour as ourselves; that is, we must love him sincerely, ardently, and effectively, but always for the love of God.
Q. How are we to practise this love?
A. The same divine Teacher taught us the way to practise it, when He said: “Do unto others as you wish them to do unto you.” Hence St. Augustine, explaining this maxim, says: “Whatever good we wish for ourselves, the same we must procure for our neighbour, and the evil that we fear we must prevent from befalling our neighbour. ”
Q. Does he who treats his neighbour kindly and generously, but without reference to God, fulfil the commandment?
A. God has commanded us to love our neighbour as ourselves, but always for love of Him, in regard to Him, with eyes fixed on Him alone. Therefore he who loves and gives abundantly to his neighbour through human sensibility, through natural goodness of heart, or through philanthropy, would not satisfy the precept. He would deserve the praise and the gratitude of men, but he would merit no supernatural reward.
Q. Why did Jesus say that “on these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets” ?
A. He said this because all the other precepts of the law and the teachings of the prophets, that is, of those who speak to us in God’s name, are founded on the commandment of the love of God and of our neighbour, and all flow therefrom in such a manner that he whose heart is animated by charity observes the whole law; but when this virtue, which constitutes the essence of a Christian, is wanting, the whole law is transgressed.
Q. After Christ had taught such a wholesome lesson, what else, according to the Gospel, did He do?
A. Wishing to render good for evil, He took the occasion to enlighten and to lead His tempters and His enemies to behold in His person the promised Messias, by asking them what they thought of Him Whom they all expected, and whose son they believed He was to be.
Q. Did the Pharisees give a correct answer when they said that the Christ was to be the son of David?
A. They answered correctly in part, but not in full. The Messias was true God and true man, and hence they should have said: As God, the Christ was the son of the Eternal Father; and as man, He was a descendant of the house of David. But the Pharisees either did not know or did not want to believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ; therefore they gave only a partial answer. The Divine Master, however, did not omit to place this great truth before them, and convinced them in such a manner that no one was able to answer Him a word.
Q. With what argument did He silence them?
A. By showing them that David, inspired by the Holy Ghost, called the Christ his Lord, thus giving Him a title which he would not have given Him if he had not known Him to be greater than he himself, because He was the Son of God, Who was to make His enemies His footstool. In this way He proved His divinity and showed them the triumph which He was to have over them.
Q. What are we to learn from this Gospel?
A. We are to learn that our first and greatest duty is to love God above all things and our neighbour as ourselves. We are to learn further not to question of cavil with God on the maxims of religion. Lastly, we are to learn how great our confusion will be, if, like the Pharisees, we dare to impugn anything that redounds to the glory of Jesus Christ.
Taken from Analysis of the Gospel of the Sundays of the year. From the Italian of Angelo Cagnola. By Rev. L. A. Lambert, LL.D.
