“Wear them on your foreheads as a reminder”(Dt
6:8)
The New Shema of Jesus
October 23, 2011, 30th Sunday of Ordinary
Time
Deuteronomy 6:4-9[1] I
Thessalonians 1:5-10 Matthew 22:34-40
The word
of the Lord
Thanks be to God
Alleluia,
alleluia.
A reading
from the holy Gospel according to
Matthew
Glory to you, Lord.
When
the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees[2],
they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the Law, seeking to trap
Him asked. "Teacher, which of all the commandments comes first?” Jesus
answered him by quoting Scripture: “`You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’[3] This is the most important of all the
commandments.” Then quoting Scripture again He added:”And the second most important commandment of all is like it: ‘You shall
love your neighbor as you love yourself.’[4]
On these two commandments depend the whole Law of Moses and the
teachings of the prophets.”
The
Gospel of the Lord.
Praise
to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Introduction
The rolling year
Here it is the last full week of October.
At the moment we’re in a kind of lull – a kind of in-between-period. That won’t
last long. Before we know it we’ll be busy preparing for Thanksgiving in
November and Christmas in December. It’s that exciting time “of the rolling
year.”
The Shema of Moses
After
giving the Law to the people of Israel, Moses told them to take his words to heart
-- to tie them to their arms, wear them on their foreheads, and write them on
their doorposts and gates as a reminder. (Dt. 6:8-9) The people of Israel took Moses literally. On a little parchment, they wrote
“Hear oh Israel! (Shema Yisrael!) You
must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with
all your mind.”[5] They inserted this parchment into little vials called mezuzahs which they nailed to their doorposts.
They also inserted them into little boxes called phylacteries[6]
which they strapped to their foreheads and wrists at prayer-time.
The new Shema of Jesus
One
day, a Pharisee, who was a scholar of the Law, approached Jesus and asked.
“Teacher, which is the most important commandment of all?” The man wasn’t out
to simply prioritize; Matthew says “he was out to trap Jesus.” (Mt 22:35) (There
were rival schools of thought about how to arrange the commandments according
to importance, and the wily man wanted to know how Jesus arranged them.) The
Lord answered the Pharisee by quoting Deuteronomy 6:5: “’Hear oh Israel! (Shema
Yisrael!) You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all
your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and the most important
commandment.” Then without being asked, Jesus added, “And the second most important command is this: ‘You must love your
neighbor as you love yourself.’” (Here Jesus was quoting Leviticus 19:18.)
He nailed the two together
Yes,
Israel of old had two commandments – one to love God and another to love
neighbor. But what’s new is that Jesus nailed the two together! He thereby
cleared up any doubt (if there was one) that we can’t love God without loving
our neighbor. Then Jesus opened all the phylacteries and mezuzahs in Israel and
placed a new Shema in them. “Hear oh
Israel! The Lord alone is our God. You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, AND you shall love your neighbor as you
love yourself.”The story is told of a little boy whose father taught mechanical engineering at a prestigious university. One day the boy asked his mother, “What time is it?” Not wearing a watch; and being rather busy she said, “Your father’s in the living room, go ask him.” The kid shrugged his shoulders and said, “Never mind. I don’t want to know how to make a watch; I just want to know what time it is!”
Without oversimplifying faith, we need to keep it
simple. We need to prioritize. We need to find a nifty nugget. We need to find something
tangible and concrete upon which to build our faith. We need to find something
that will have enough substance to give us purpose and direction, yet not be so
over-laden as to drag us down. We need something concise enough to memorize and
simple enough for a child to understand. And the Good News is this: hidden in
the great maze of religious literature or church teachings, rules and regulations there is such a precious priority and nifty nugget, and it is this: “You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, AND you shall
love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
The need for` a big idea’
A homiletic professor spoke to his class
about the need for `a big idea’ in one’s sermon. He told a story about
President Calvin Coolidge. When he returned home from church one Sunday, his
wife asked him what the minister preached about. "Sin,” the president
said. But when his wife pressed him further and asked what the preacher had to
say about sin, President Coolidge seemed uncertain. He replied:"I think he
was against it.” The minister’s sermon had come across as a confusing mish-mash
of ideas. It had a great need for a single big idea. Not so with the great Preacher
from Nazareth: He had a single big idea, and it was this: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, AND
you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Church leaders in need of `a big’
Some years ago
the
president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, asked his fellow bishops
to inform all pastors that the extraordinary ministers[8] of
Holy Communion will no longer be permitted to assist in the purification of the
sacred vessels after Mass! That permission was granted back in 2002, and Rome had
recently refused to renew it.
Conclusion
Prioritize!
The gospel command
today is: Prioritize! Know what’s important and what’s not very important at all. Then “fasten it to your
wrists and forehead and nail it to your doorpost” so that you might be ever-mindful.
Prioritize! Know what’s important and what’s not very important at all. Then “tell
it over and over again to your children.” Prioritize especially in these hard
economical times. And yes, prioritize especially at this time of the rolling
year, when the first notes of Thanksgiving and Christmas are already being
struck, and you’ll soon be overwhelmed with big meals to be cooked, gifts to be
bought, parties to be held and visits to
be made.
