October 25, 2020: Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost
Matthew 22:34-46
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him,
“’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: “What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet”’?
If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus is instructing the Pharisees on the importance of love. In his admonishment that we are to love the Lord with everything we’ve got, he is asking for nothing less than single-hearted devotion.
However, most of us are distracted by many things. We allow our work, family concerns, our fascination with technology and social media and what people think of us, to get in the way of our relationship with God. We stray from fully recognizing we are God’s beloved and chosen people, meant to be in relationship with the One who created us.
We need to examine ourselves, and see what in our lives is not loving. What actions or behaviors are addictive, what parts of our lives do not naturally incline us toward care for ourselves and care for others? Where are we not in right relationship with others, due to a history of hurt or lack of forgiveness? What can we do to right these relationships?
To love the Lord with all our hearts means to keep God at the center of our lives. It means turning to God in prayer, being persons of prayer. It means to choose, over and over, to give of ourselves in love, even when we are tired and don’t feel like it. It means recognizing when our inclinations are selfish and stopping ourselves in time before we do things that hurt ourselves or others. It means asking for forgiveness when we do mess up.
Loving the Lord with all our hearts requires gratitude for all God has given us, and blessing God continuously for God’s gifts to us. As we recognize God’s generosity to us, we are able to give of ourselves ever more fully to our neighbors, whose needs become as important as our own.