Tad Brain Power

 THE THIRTY FIRST SUNDAY OF THE YEAR B!

In today’s gospel a scribe asks Jesus to identify the most important commandment of all. Jesus answers the scribe’s question directly. But he mentions two commandments instead of one: love of God and love of neighbour. Why? It wasn’t that Jesus had a problem with maths. The answer is that loving God and neighbour are two sides of the same coin. You cannot have one without the other.

A renowned scribe and the interpreter of Torah (Law) in Jerusalem named Rabbi Hillel was born before Christ. He was 80 years old and he probably died in the year of Christ about 10 A.D. His interpretations of Law were less severe than others. Our Lord must have heard him very often, and he could possibly have spoken with him during the three days before the Finding him in the Temple.

Here is one of the tales Our Lord might have heard from him. A certain gentile who wanted to know about Torah (Law) came to Shammai, the leader of the strict interpreter of the Law. He said to him that he would like to become his disciple. He asked him, ''Can you teach me the whole Torah (Law) while I am standing on one foot?'' Shammai got angry with him and told him how can I teach you the whole Torah in few hours? He sent him away. Then he came to Rabbi Hillel with the same question. Hillel admitted him as a convert and gave him the summary of the whole Torah. He said to him, "Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to your brothers." This is the whole Torah: all the rest is commentary. Now go and study.

The whole Christian Torah is to love our neighbours unconditionally and this is one of the greatest commandments of Jesus. Jesus did not stop merely by giving this great commandment but He practiced it in His life. He loved His father through loving us all. It was Jesus' love for His father that prompted Him to be born as a simple human being. It was Jesus’ love for His father that gave Him the courage to be the friend of tax collectors, sinners, outcasts, adulterous and prostitutes. It was Jesus' love for His father that gave Him the strength to carry the cross and die that shameful death at Calvary.

God comes to us through our neighbours. In the love of a neighbour we experience the warmth of God and in his concern we experience the loving kindness of God. We cannot love God without loving our neighbour. The first Letter of John makes it abundantly clear that loving God and loving neighbour are inseparable: ‘Let us love one another since love comes from God, and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is Love’ (1 John 4: 7-8).

We the followers of Christ are called to do what Jesus did, to give a special place to the poorest of the poor in our heart. We are called to bear witness to the love of God by loving one another. But how many of us really see God in our neighbours? How many of us go to Church every Sunday, listen to the word of God and come back to settle scores with our neighbours? How many of us attend the liturgical services daily, experience the love of God, receive Jesus on our tongue and use the same tongue to cast slur on a person whom we do not like? How many of us say the prayers daily and with the prayer book in one hand turn out to help a needy person who comes to our door? How many of us go on pilgrimage to Holy places, do Novenas, and offer masses in all possible churches even visit the Holy Land in the name of the love of God and yet do not care to visit a person who is on his death bed?

The error of the Pharisees is still here with us. There are still many Christians who try to separate love of fellow human beings from love of God. Their commitment to faith does not include commitment to human rights and to justice and peace issues. We shall do well to heed the message of Jesus in today's gospel: that true love of God and true love of neighbour are two sides of the same coin. Any attempt to separate them is a falsification of the message of Christ. “Those who say, 'I love God,' and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen" (1 John 4:20).

At the very heart of Christianity is love. Love is the Christian identity. It is the mark Christ gave to Christians to wear before the World. Only with this mark may the World know that Christians are indeed Christians and that Jesus was sent by the Father.

The great Mahatma Gandhi was asked about his view of Christianity. What he said could show us what probably is keeping two-thirds of the world away from the Good News of Christianity: he said, "I have a great respect for Christianity. I often read the Sermon on the Mount and have gained much from it. I know of no one who has done more for humanity than Jesus. In fact, there is nothing wrong with Christianity, but the trouble is with you Christians. You do not begin to live up to your own teachings".

The greatest homage we can pay to the Christian faith is to live in such a way that through us people begin to have a glimpse of the unbounded and unconditional love that God has shown us in Christ. Let us follow the New Commandment of Jesus, Love one another as I have loved you. Amen

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2Maria Stanislaus and James Masih