Homily on the fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Matthew 22: 35-46.
In today’s Gospel, we have recounted how a particular lawyer tried to entrap our Lord and Saviour. In the time of Christ, the Pharasees were determined to disprove that Christ was the Messiah! In many ways, one can gauge through the Gospel accounts, that the Pharasees were scared of losing their power and influence. After all, if one was considered to be the cream of the crop, as were the Pharasees (in matters of faith and morals) then one would be petrified of losing one’s authority. Think about it in this way, in the time of Christ the Pharasees were considered to be one of the spiritual elites in Jewish society, and as a result, they needed to disprove the claims of Christ. However, again and again, they failed as they did not recognize that the kingdom that Christ speaks about is not of this world. Our faith, unlike many other religions, does not seek temporal domination – instead, we aim to build the kingdom of God - which although encompassing physical reality and beyond is not of this world. To the Pharasees, our Lord and Saviour was a great threat as He spoke not of a Jewish independence movement, but rather, He spoke of a kingdom of all-encompassing love. This is why when tested by the Lawyer He states that the law rests on two fundamental tenents – love of All-Holy Trinity and love of one’s neighbor. Our Lord and Saviour being God could have chosen to bring about a temporal Jewish independent state, but He did not, as He came to save all – in effect giving all the invitation to the heavenly banquet which is the Eucharist.
One thing that is clear is that in the time of Christ is that the Israelites thought that they would be the only saved people – in that the All-Holy Trinity ONLY made a covenant with them -the Jewish nation. However, if one goes into the books of the Old Testament, again and again, it is clear that the All-Holy Trinity willed the salvation of all mankind – just look at Psalm 22: 27 –
‘all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee!
This is something we the New Testament Church would do well to remember in our dealings with people. Christ in effect is saying all are welcome to approach the font of life which is the great offering of Christ in the Mystery of the Holy Eucharist. Remember, if salvation was just for the Hebrews alone than Christ would have become the warlord they so longed for. However, Christ did the exact opposite He approached those who were deemed unworthy – for instance, He approached St Photini (John 4: 5-42) - a Samaritan. In approaching her at a well, He showed that His will is that all are to have access to the font of salvation – in effect showing that salvation is not reliant on one’s nationality! Furthermore, why is the parable of the good Samaritan so vital to us Christians? Well in many ways in this parable, Christ is showing that even a person from a culture considered heretical to the Jews of His day, has that same responsibility to fulfill the All-Holy Trinity’s commandment of love – in effect showing that all are called, and all have a responsibility to love as the All-Holy Trinity commands. This is why Christ was so despised in His ministry by those in power as He said to them:
“No all are called and if you think that following a set of restrictive rules (the Levitical law) will save – it will not as these rules come not from God but men. God commands you to love, and in so doing you will find salvation.”
This is why in many ways I find it strange that many sects of Christianity still rely on portions of the Levitical law- as clearly in today’s Gospel Christ is adamant that there are only two commandments – that of love for God and love for one’s fellow man. Let us not forget many of the practices in the Levitical law had no doctrinal basis and in many ways, they were instructions on how to live one’s life in a Jewish manner. For instance, Leviticus 19:19 commands that Jews are not wear clothes made of two types of materials, as well as Jews, are not to sow two different seeds in the same field! Furthermore, many Christians seem to forget that the Levitical law was merely mans attempt to try and live by the ten commandments as revealed in Exodus 20: 1-17. This is why St Paul 1 Corinthians 15: 55-56 states:
“O death, where is thy victory, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
What Saint Paul is saying here is that the old Levitical law could not and would not save as it came from flawed men’s attempts to interpret the ten commandments. However, through Christ, the law has been fulfilled and revealed merely to be the great commandment of love – love for God and love for one’s brother. More importantly, Saint Paul is saying that through Christ we have victory over sin and death! Let us never forget this great commandment of love.
Finally, there is a great perception that because Christians are called to love that we must just put up with any abuse and do and say nothing. However, if one truly loves someone, then one will correct them out of love when appropriate. Think about it in this way parents often have to discipline their children and they as a parent will do this out of love – good parents do this because they want the best for their child. So to, it must be with Christians – if we truly love our fellow man, then we must gently correct them when they have strayed. Some people may see this as Christians trying to tell others what to do – however, if a person corrects someone out of love, then they are showing their compassion for the other person - not their judgment. What this means then, is that if one stands by and says or does nothing, one is showing that one does not care about one’s brother. I see this all the time as a priest and a teacher. Oftentimes, teachers that do not care about their students will let them get away with not doing their work – however, this is not the loving thing to do - for if a teacher cares about their students, then they will do everything in their power to get them to work, as it is in their student’s best interests to work and learn. Thus, we as Christians must not be afraid to speak up should we need to as we are commanded to do so out of love for our fellow man! Let us take our Lord and Saviour as the perfect example of this – Christ was not afraid to speak up when He needed to. Christ stood up to the priests of His day and told them that they had gotten the All-Holy Trinity’s message of love all wrong and consequently they sought His crucifixion! Let us pray that our Lord and Saviour may give us the courage to speak up when needed. Also, let us pray that we may always do the best to love our fellow man.
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