30th Sunday in Ordinary Time [A]
October 29, 2023
Matthew 22:34-40<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Love is arguably the most used but also the most misunderstood and even misused. Some people use this word to manipulate others and get what they want. Men or women can say, \u2018Don\u2019t you love me?\u2019 to keep their partners in a toxic and abusive relationship. Some others will easily utter, \u2018This is because we love each other,\u2019 to justify their sinful behaviors. For the \u2018love\u2019 of their country and race, some men persecute another ethnic group and burn their villages. For the \u2018love\u2019 of God and religion, some men blow themselves up and kill innocent people, including children. Yet, this is not the real love, and surely not what Jesus meant when He taught the commandment of love. So, what does Jesus mean by true love?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To answer the question, we need to understand first our gospel today. To understand it, we need a bit of context. When the Pharisees asked Jesus about the greatest commandment in the Law, they expected Jesus to select one from among various regulations and commandments in the Law of Moses. Jewish traditions counted there are 613 precepts in the Law of Moses. From among many possible answers, Jesus chose, \u201cYou shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.\u201d For many of us Christians, Jesus\u2019 answer seems to be revolutionary and breaks away from the Law of Moses. We often think that the Old Testament is about the Ten Commandments, but the New Testament is about the Law of Love. Yet, this is far from the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus\u2019 answer is straight from the heart of the Old Testament. His answer is from Deut 6:4-6. In Jewish tradition, it is called \u2018Shema\u2019. These verses are sacred for the Israelites, and they would recite these words several times a day as their basic prayer. We may think of \u2018Shema\u2019 as a prayer of Our Father in the Catholic Church. However, Jesus did not stop there. He also added the second greatest commandment, \u201cYou shall love your neighbor as yourself.\u201d Again, this is also coming from the Old Testament (see Lev 19:18).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is revolutionary about Jesus\u2019 answer is not about the sources of His statements but the true orientation of all precepts in the Law of Moses. We do all things because of our love of God. At the same time, Jesus\u2019 greatest commandment clarifies and gives proper orientation on how we love others. The love for others is the essential manifestation of the love for God and is made for the love for God (see CCC 1822). A simple way to do this is by asking the question, \u201cIs my action pleasing to God?\u201d If the answer is not, surely our action is not a true love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Therefore, we cannot use \u2018love\u2019 as a justification for our sinful behaviors and lifestyles. We cannot say that we love someone, but in reality, we bring them far from God. It is also totally false to kill innocent people in the name of love for God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rome<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
30th Sunday in Ordinary Time [A]
\nOctober 29, 2023
\nMatthew 22:34-40<\/p>\n
Love is arguably the most used but also the most misunderstood and even misused. Some people use this word to manipulate others and get what they want. Men or women can say, \u2018Don\u2019t you love me?\u2019 to keep their partners in a toxic and abusive relationship. Some others will easily utter, \u2018This is because we love each other,\u2019 to justify their sinful behaviors. For the \u2018love\u2019 of their country and race, some men persecute another ethnic group and burn their villages. For the \u2018love\u2019 of God and religion, some men blow themselves up and kill innocent people, including children. Yet, this is not the real love, and surely not what Jesus meant when He taught the commandment of love. So, what does Jesus mean by true love?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[57,58,67],"class_list":["post-11988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-renungan","tag-english","tag-sunday-reflection","tag-valentinus-bayuhadi-ruseno"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11988"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11989,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11988\/revisions\/11989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}