Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Mt 22,34-40

Man has various privileges. He can think. He is free to make decisions. To subjugate nature. To reshape the world. The crown of these privileges is the ability to love. Jesus calls it the greatest commandment, which has two components: love of God and love of neighbor. In Jesus’ conversation with the teacher of the Law, Christ uses the term “commandment” because it better describes the religious terminology of the day. But we can say from the whole of Jesus’ revelation and teaching that the ability to love God and neighbor is not only a command but a privilege, a gift that God has placed in the human heart. We might even say that the ability to love is the mark of our likeness to God. After all, God said so: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gen 1:26). And that likeness to God consists in the capacity to love.

Thus, created by God, man is like a magnet. His mission is to radiate the energy of love. And he will make the most perfect field of love when he focuses all his powers of spirit and body, mind and heart, entirely on God. Then, the privilege to love this faculty is most optimally utilized, and love can reach its greatest perfection. Thus, A person focused on God can transfer the energy of love to another person. Therefore, harmony is created between love for God and one’s neighbor. Love unites into one strong field of one great love. Therefore, Jesus’ command to love God and neighbor must be understood in terms of the great gift with which God endows man. If man could not love, he would not be man. Man is created out of love and for love. He is born to love, lives to love, and dies to love.

This glad tidings of man’s privilege, however, unfortunately does not translate into practical life. Some people have chosen to destroy in themselves the capacity to love and have created a field of hatred around them. They spread the energy of evil. The most astounding thing is that they claim about themselves how much they love God. This is where we encounter the term “false” or “false” religiosity. We can divide such believers into several categories. The first category includes people publicly known to be both religious and wicked. Anyone encountering such a person will immediately sense that they are spreading evil energy. He does it deliberately, intentionally, and with full knowledge. He considers the most incredible experience of the day to be attending Holy Mass and performing an evil deed. These people are happy every night when they can tell themselves that they have wronged someone during the day. And they are unhappy in the evening when they have failed to do so during the day.

The second category is people who are mentally disabled. They are intellectually at such a level that acts of love cannot be expected of them. They do not bear full responsibility for their speech. Sometimes, it is their whole life, only in a specific section of their life. The third category belongs to refined people. They are those who, on the surface, do nothing wrong. They never speak ugly. They are never outwardly angry. But under the guise of pious talk, they can sow evil in another person. They subtly and tactfully lead him to do evil. They will say that the Lord Jesus suffered and that we, too, must suffer, but at the same time, they will add that man has the right to judge himself. They will say that one should only pray, but they will add that writing a letter to an institution is not wrong. They know so holy a nudge and encouragement to do evil. This is the most virulent group of Christians, which is dangerous because it is difficult to detect.

Let us not look at this moment to see which category our neighbor in our pew falls into, but let us think about whether we fall into any category. If God has given us the grace to be here in the church now, let us also ask Him for the grace to honestly know what kind of people we are and what kind of Christians we are. Let us consider what energy we are spreading into our environment, whether it is the energy of love or anger. Let us ask God to forgive us for not yet being human in the image of God. God can give us the power to become his image as long as we live. All He wants from us is honesty and weeping over ourselves. Man has taken advantage of the many privileges God has given him. Unfortunately, he has made little use of the privilege to love and to build a “civilization of love.”