Who Are We Called to Be?
To All,
In our Gospel reading for this Sunday (Matthew 22:34-40), Jesus has yet another encounter with the religious leaders of the people. This time, it is a scholar of the law who tests him, asking, “Teacher, which commandment of the law is the greatest?” Jesus replies,
“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 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.”
Simple enough, right? But it is important to recognize that Jesus makes the connection between love of God and love of neighbor, and when we see that we can’t separate the two, things can get a bit more uncomfortable.
Our first reading from Exodus (22:20-26) is a case in point. In our reading, we hear Moses addressing the people:
“Thus says the Lord: ‘You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt. You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry… If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors among my people, you shall not act like an extortioner toward him by demanding interest from him. If you take your neighbor’s cloak from him as a pledge, you shall return it before sunset; for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body…If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate.”
If I listen to Moses correctly, I hear the love of neighbor being translated to no oppression or violence to those considered “other.” I hear no wrong being done to the most vulnerable. I hear no exploitation or extortion of the poor.
When we think of these commandments to love God and love our neighbor in these terms, it can make us uncomfortable, and we may find ourselves tempted to disconnect these commandments because of the demands the love of neighbor may make of us. But we cannot separate the love of God and love of neighbor.
I have been wondering, in these divided and anxious times, whether this is the time to ask ourselves some questions.
One question is something we should always ask ourselves:
What kind of person is God calling me to be?
I also think that we should be asking ourselves:
What kind of church are we called to be?
What kind of country are we called to be?
These questions come from a belief in God, but they do not exclude us from working with people of good will.
Have compassion and empathy gone out of favor? It seems that some people consider them as signs of weakness. Some others seem to make a great distinction between the two, considering empathy as something bad. I have trouble making such a distinction.
Thanks be to God that compassion hasn’t gone out of favor with God! As was said in our first reading, God is compassionate. And so are we called to be.
May God’s compassion and love lead us beyond fear into the willingness to show compassion to our neighbors and demonstrate our love of God. May we become a “model for all believers” as St. Paul characterized the Christians in Thessalonica as he affirmed them in our second reading (1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10).
I welcome any comments or questions. Thanks for your time.
In Christ,
Phil, CP
