I’d like to have you answer today’s question by a show of hands. My question is this: Were you born in Harris County? As I suspected, not many of us are “natives.” Most of us are “aliens,” born in a foreign land. Some might even be from Dallas or Louisiana! There may even be a few New Yorkers among us. I, myself, was born in Ohio, so I’m one of those Yankees and not a native Texan or Southerner.
Occasionally, we all need to be reminded of the fact that, in some way or another, we are all outsiders, ”aliens.” Even the Israelites had to be reminded by the Lord God in our first reading from the book of Exodus: “You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.” The Lord God also reminded the Israelites, in addition to not harming strangers or aliens, they also needed to take special care of those who had no elder to protect them, those who were without parents, the orphans, and those who had no husbands to protect them, the widows.
Yes, back then, those without protection, such as widows and orphans, were to be given special considerations. There were rules and regulations written down in the Law, in the Torah, to set out the proper conduct for social interactions. For instance, one rule was that at harvest time, when the olive growers went through their groves and beat their trees with long sticks knocking the ripe olives off the trees and gathering the fallen fruit into nets spread beneath the trees, the harvesters should take care to leave some of the olives behind so they could ripen further and be gathered later by the widows and orphans. There were a lot of rules to govern how the Israelites should act toward members of the community and toward strangers who lived among them. Some of the rules concerned providing assistance to those in need, as well as an expectation of what you might get back in exchange for your help.
The scholars of the law kept track of all of the community rules and regulations to make sure justice was available for everyone. Actually, it may have been difficult to be a student of the law back then, since there were some 613 specific laws that had to be followed. There were 365 laws prohibiting you from doing something and 248 laws saying you must do something positive when the situation arose. With so many laws, some were bound to conflict when a specific problem came up. The scholars would then determine which of the conflicting laws was the heavier one, which one weighed more than the other. Even today, as a result of such thinking, we picture justice as a woman holding a balance scale.
Now one day, one bright student of the law, a lawyer if you prefer, asked Jesus a trick question: “Out of all these 613 laws, which one is the heaviest? Which one is correct no matter what the situation might be?” The lawyer evidently thought no matter which law Jesus might cite, he – as a student of the law – could think of one countering the one Jesus would give. As we know, Jesus in response recited the “Shema,” the holy prayer recited each morning by every believing Israelite: “Hear, o Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
Jesus did not reply with any of the 365 negative laws. Instead, he reminded his listeners they must love the Lord God with all of their physical existence, their heart, and with all their interior, spiritual existence, their soul, to the maximum extent possible.
Just as God loves each of us unconditionally, we are called to love God unconditionally. We are called to love God, not for what we might get back in return for our love, but rather, just because God is the creating parent who has already given us all we have. God gives us gifts not because we deserve them or earn them or merit them for what we do, but because the Lord God gives us everything just because he loves us and wants us to have it. In return, we’re to show our love for God in the only way possible, by being thankful for the gifts he has given us. And how do we show our thankfulness for God’s love, for God’s gifts?
The easy way would be to say to God, “I love you.” But that’s not the complete answer. For if it were, Jesus could have stopped with his recitation of the Schema. But he did not. Jesus said there was a second part to the law, one exactly like the first part, a second instruction saying: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” We show our love for God only by showing our love for “neighbor” and for “self.” Loving my neighbor is part of loving God. Loving who I am because I am a creature of God is part of loving God.
I cannot wait to love my self until after I look better, feel better, or act better, for that kind of love is conditional love, a love which requires something before I can love back. I cannot wait to love my neighbor until after he or she changes to suit what I want or expect, for that, too, is conditional love. No, the only change required of me is that I love better. The only change is that I love myself and others without demanding any other condition. I’m to love God and all human beings with my own, whole being, with body and soul.
And what is the result of such love? The result is a change in my actions, in how I relate to others: Those who are strangers whom I do not yet know. Those who are neighbors whom I know only casually. Those who are friends whom I know directly. Those who are family whom I know intimately. This is what it is to be a Christian: to love first, and to change as a result of that love.
The Second Reading for today from St Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians reminds us all Christians are called to be imitators of Christ and to be models for others. He reminds his listeners how they had turned from idols to serve the living and true God. St Paul encourages them to continue their work in every place where their faith in God has gone forth.
Today, throughout the world, Pope John Paul has proclaimed this to be Mission Sunday, a day when we’re called to help all those who are in need: strangers, neighbors, friends and family. Each of us is sent out. Each of us has the mission to love and to help those who are near and those who are far away. We are to help those we can touch and those too far away to touch directly. Since we cannot help everyone directly, we are being asked to contribute financial support toward the efforts of worldwide missions.
Not all of us can be active missionaries in foreign countries or even in the United States. However, all of us can be “co-missionaries.” We are commissioned through the financial support we give. Yet, John Paul in his address for Mission Sunday also reminds us that our mission includes prayer and sacrifice. He asks for our prayers, our conversations with God. He also asks for our sacrifices. And just what is a sacrifice? What are we asked to do? A sacrifice is an action performed for the sake of God. It’s an action that makes the ordinary sacred, holy, blessed. Often, it’s a difficult action, but one we must do because it’s the right thing to do for love of God, for love of others, for true love of self.
Our prayers, what we speak with God, and our sacrifices, what we do on behalf of God, could be determined by rules and regulations, by formal codes of conduct, or by guidelines for ethical behavior. Yes, we could follow exactly what was spoken by the prophets or written in the laws given to Moses. Or our words and actions, our prayers and sacrifices, can be a result of the love we have for our Creator and the love we have for each and every human being created by God. In addition to our love for God, Jesus gives us a new mission, a mission that sends us forth with the word of God: love one another as I have loved you.
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary; October 24, 1999 (Mission Sunday)
Ex 22:20-26; 1 Thess 1:5c-10; Mt 22:34-40