Matthew 22:34-40

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Psalm 107:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

Matthew 22:34-40

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,

they gathered together, and one of them,

a scholar of the law, tested him by asking,

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”

He said to him,

“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart,

with all your soul, and with all your mind.

This is the greatest and the first commandment.

The second is like it:

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I love you with all my heart. Reign in my heart. I love you with all my soul. Fill my soul with your grace. I love you with all my mind. Bestow the gift of your wisdom upon my mind.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Testing Jesus: The Pharisees were unable to trap Jesus with the question about paying taxes to Caesar (Matthew 22:15). So, they sent a scholar of the Law to ask Jesus another question. The intention of this question was not to trap Jesus but to test Jesus. Unlike the question about paying taxes, this question doesn’t seem to have ill will toward Jesus. “There is not necessarily a trap here. Rabbis often debated which laws within the Torah carried precedence, and discovering the way an individual Rabbi prioritized or ranked the Mosaic laws gave insight into his interpretive approach or legal system” (Bergsma, The Word of the Lord: Year A, 452). There were 613 laws to choose from. Here, the Pharisees wanted to see if Jesus was truly a Rabbi and scholar of the Law of Moses. They were testing whether this carpenter from Nazareth, with no formal training in a Rabbinic school in Jerusalem, could answer a question about the Law.

2. These Two Commandments: According to Jesus, the entire Torah (the first five books of the Bible) and the Prophets hang on the two commandments to love. Jesus first cites Deuteronomy 6:5 from the Shema, “the monotheistic creed of Israel that the faithful recited as part of their daily prayers” (Mitch and Sri, The Gospel of Matthew, 288). We are called to love God with our entire being. Love is not a passing emotion or feeling. Love is an action, a giving of oneself, a commitment to keep the covenant relationship with someone. Jesus then cites Leviticus 19:18 about loving our neighbor. “Neighbor” includes our family, our friends, the people in our community, and even our enemies. John will teach in his First Letter that love of God and love of neighbor go together. We are liars if we say we love God without loving our brothers and sisters. The flip side is also true: we cannot truly love our brothers and sisters without divine love.  

3. The Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones: In the First Reading, the prophet Ezekiel has a vision of a valley full of dry bones. This vision is part of the Book of Ezekiel that deals with the aftermath of the Fall of Jerusalem (chapters 33-39). It is from a section called the “Book of Comfort” (Ezekiel 34:1-37:28). “Many of the prophecies in these chapters can be understood as being fulfilled in Jesus and his ministry as recorded in the Gospels. Ezekiel even predicts the coming of a new covenant, although his preferred term for it is ‘covenant of peace.’ (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: Ezekiel, 58). God has just promised to lead the people of Israel on a New or Second Exodus, cleanse them with water, give them a new heart, pour out his Spirit upon them, and make a new covenant with them (Ezekiel 36:24-28). The vision of the dry bones develops these promises. The unclean, dead bones are dried up, meaning that it seems like there is no hope for restoration. But what Ezekiel promises is that there is hope. One day, in the future, the people will receive God’s Spirit who will restore them to life. From a historical point of view, Ezekiel promises that God will restore the nation of Israel from exile in Babylon. From a deeper point of view, Ezekiel is promising that God will bestow new life upon humanity. Human beings will be raised from the dead to share in the eschatological blessings of eternal life, divine sonship, and divine glory.

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, I humbly ask you to bestow your blessing upon me. Bless me with the gift of eternal life. Bless me with the gift of divine sonship. Bless with the gift of divine glory. I will strive to correspond to this blessing and love the Father with all my heart, soul, and mind, and my neighbor as myself.

Living the Word of God: During this month of August, how have I manifested my love for God? What is my love language with God? Acts of service? Words of praise? Quality time? Worthy reception of the Eucharist? The sacrificial offering of myself? Striving to grow in holiness? During this month of August, how have I loved my neighbor?