GOSPEL REFLECTION, FRIDAY, 20TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, 21 AUGUST 2026, ST PIUS X, POPE

Matthew 22:34-40.  In the preceding verses to today’s gospel, Jesus has just silenced a challenge from the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection and their faulty interpretation of scripture.  Continuing this sort of conflict, the Pharisees set out to challenge Jesus yet again by asking him, “Teacher, which commandment in the Law is the greatest?”  Jesus answered by citing the schema, the fundamental Jewish statement of faith: “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment” (vv. 37-38, Deuteronomy 6.5).  So fundamental is this profession of faith that it was proclaimed at the beginning of every synagogue service, and so would be known and loved by all Jews.  But Jesus added, “and a  second is like it, “you shall love your neighbour as yourself.  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the prophets” (vv. 39-40).  So saying, he said something very similar to what Rabbi Hillel had said before him – ‘the first and greatest commandment is you shall love the Lord your God with all your soul, and with all your heart, and with all your mind; all the rest is commentary.’  This must have satisfied the Pharisees because Rabbi Hillel was one of their favoured historical rabbis.

We must comment on the word ‘love’ used in Jesus’ summary of the Law.  It has nothing to do with simple affection, let alone sentimentality, that great enemy of spirituality.  It means that we shall love the Lord our God with all that is in us, with all fidelity and commitment, just as the Lord our God did with us in his holy Covenant with us.  In context of Jesus’ second commandment, it means that we must love ourselves, not in an earthly way, but in the way of the Covenant, and love, respect, support others compatible with the way of God’s Covenant too. 

We may well ask, “ then, what is the difference between Rabbi Hillel saying this and Jesus saying it?”  The answer is this: Rabbi Hillel was a great and wonderful rabbi, a teacher of the people of Israel; but Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah, Emmanuel, God-with-Us, and he said it with divine authority according to his mission from God the Father.