By Fr. Ed Liptak, SDB
This 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time the final words of the Old Testament reading all but shout out to us, “I am compassionate!” From ages past God urges us never to take advantage of the poor. Among these are the immigrant and the widow or the orphan, Offences against them cry out to heaven and the God of compassion hears their cry. Others who call out to God for mercy are those in financial straits. They seek and they need fairness, and God wants us to know, “If [they] cry out to me, I will hear [them], for I am compassionate.” Let our conduct be Godlike.
St. Paul tells us to be his imitators, willing to work as he did, even as he preached the Way of God. It may be that we heard God’s call to holiness even when we were very ordinary people. His call always comes with joyfulness, for it is given through the Holy Spirit. Then rejoice! Be grateful. Jesus delivers us. We. await God’s final call to heaven. Says Paul, be a model for others to seek salvation as you have found it, in joy now and forever. This is his advice.
The Alleluia verse of today’s Mass is an encouraging and comforting promise of Jesus; “Whoever loves me will keep my word, says the Lord, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him.” These words were spoken by Jesus to urge that we obey God as a sign of our love for Him. Yes, to keep God’s word does require toil. The salary He pays is eternal joy.
Over past weeks in the Gospels Jesus has silenced many. Left out were the Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection of the body. Their clever trap was to invent seven brothers who married one woman. The men died before having a child. To which one would she be married to when she too died? Jesus called them ignorant of the scriptures or of God’s power; in heaven there was no getting or being married. Resurrected bodies, said Jesus, were like the angels.
Hearing of this, the Pharisees sent one of their own scholars to ask which commandment of the many was the greatest. Jesus correctly quoted Moses’ statement in Deuteronomy (Dt 6:12) regarding total, heartfelt love of God. Quickly He added another also from Moses on love of neighbor as one loved oneself (Lev 19:17-16). Brilliantly Jesu called the love of God the first and greatest but swiftly added the second on love of neighbor. He then taught the expert a lesson, “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the prophets.” At that He had a surprise question for them: What did the scriptures say about the Christ whom he claimed to be? The crowd was astonished.
Whom but Jesus shall we allow to lead us to God?