Thirtieth Sunday in
Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 148
It-Tletin Ħadd
taż-Żmien ta’ Matul is-Sena
Reading 1 EXodus 22:20-26 Thus
says the LORD: "You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were
once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt
Qari 1
Qari
mill-Ktieb tal-Eżodu Eż 22, 20-26
Dan jgħid il-Mulej: “La taħqarx il-barrani,
u la tgħakksux, għax intom ukoll kontu barranin fl-art tal-Eġittu. La taħqrux
l-armla jew l-iltim, għax jekk taħqruhom, u huma jsejħuli, jien żgur nismagħha
l-għajta tagħhom; u l-qilla tiegħi tixgħel, neqridkom bix-xabla; u n-nisa tagħkom
jormlu u wliedkom jisfaw iltiema. Jekk inti tislef lil xi fqir mill-poplu tiegħi,
iġġibx ruħek miegħu bħal wieħed sellief, u teħodlux imgħax. Jekk lil għajrek teħodlu
l-libsa tiegħu b’rahan, agħtihielu lura qabel inżul ix-xemx; għax hu dik biss għandu
biex jitgħatta, dik biss l-għata ta’ ġismu; inkella fiex tridu jorqod? Għax
jekk isejjaħli, jiena nisimgħu, għax jien ħanin”.Il-Kelma tal-Mulej
Responsorial Psalm
PSalm 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51 I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
My God, my rock of
refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
The LORD lives and blessed be my rock!
Extolled be God my savior.
You who gave great victories to your king
and showed kindness to your anointed.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
Extolled be God my savior.
You who gave great victories to your king
and showed kindness to your anointed.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
Salm Responsorjali
Salm 17
(18), 2-3a.3bc-4.47.51ab
Inħobbok, Mulej, qawwa tiegħi!
Il-Mulej blata tiegħi,
fortizza u ħellies tiegħi. R/.
R/. (2): Inħobbok, Mulej, qawwa tiegħi
Alla tiegħi, sur tal-kenn tiegħi u tarka tiegħi,
qawwa tas-salvazzjoni tiegħi u kenn tiegħi!
Insejjaħ lill-Mulej, li hu ta’ min ifaħħru,
u nkun meħlus mill-għedewwa tiegħi. R/.
R/. (2): Inħobbok, Mulej, qawwa tiegħi
Ħaj il-Mulej! Imbierek hu, il-blata tiegħi!
Ikun imfaħħar Alla tas-salvazzjoni tiegħi!
Hu jkabbar ir-rebħ lis-sultan tiegħu,
juri mħabbtu mal-midluk tiegħu. R/.
R/. (2): Inħobbok, Mulej, qawwa tiegħi
Reading 2 1 THESsalonians 1:5C-10 Brothers
and sisters: You know what sort of people we were among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of
the Lord, receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy
Spirit, so that you became a model for all the believers in Macedonia Macedonia
Qari 2
Mill-Ewwel
Ittra lit-Tessalonkin - 1, 5c-10
Ħuti, intom tafu kif ġibna ruħna meta konna fostkom għall-ġid
tagħkom. Intom sirtu tixbhu lilna u l-Mulej, billi lqajtu l-kelma fost ħafna taħbit
bil-ferħ tal-Ispirtu s-Santu. Hekk intom sirtu mudell għal dawk kollha li emmnu
fil-Maċedonja u l-Akaja. Mhux biss il-kelma tal-Mulej ħarġet minn
Gospel 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."
Evanġelju
Mattew
22,
34-40
F’dak iż-żmien, il-Fariżej, meta semgħu kif lis-Sadduċej kien
saddilhom ħalqhom, inġabru madwaru, u wieħed minnhom, għaref fil-Liġi, għamillu
din il-mistoqsija biex iġarrbu: “Mgħallem,
liema hu l-kmandament il-kbir, fil-Liġi?”.Qallu Ġesù: ““Ħobb
lill-Mulej, Alla tiegħek, b’qalbek kollha, b’ruħek kollha, u b’moħħok kollu”.
Dan hu l-kmandament il-kbir u l-ewwel wieħed. U t-tieni jixbhu: “Ħobb lil għajrek
bħalek innifsek”. Dawn iż-żewġ kmandamenti huma l-qofol tal-Liġi kollha u
tal-Profeti”. Il-Kelma tal-Mulej
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Being Christian is not the Result of an Ethical
Choice
Commentary by Fr Thomas Rosica csb
Sunday’s first reading from Exodus (22:21-27) and Matthew’s Gospel story
about the greatest commandment (22:34-40) challenge us in the ways that we love
God and neighbour. The Exodus reading relates some specific provisions of the
Law regarding widows, orphans, and the poor. The Lord reminds his people that
they themselves were once strangers in a foreign land. To the strangers,
widows, orphans, and the poor we must show justice and compassion. If not, the
Lord himself will punish wrongdoers and defend the helpless.
The Lord deals severely with our negative attitudes and action towards
others, particularly the poor, strangers, the disadvantaged, and those
different from us. The authenticity of our faith, our love of God, and our
relationship with Christ is measured by the way we treat others.
The readings challenge us to seek repentance and forgiveness for our
negative attitudes towards others and the way we tend to treat them. This
Gospel contains the fundamental prayer of the Shema –
the Hebrew profession of faith, always prayers with your hand covering your eyes so you can "listen" better. (photo): “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord”
(Deuteronomy 6:4). Just as we profess our faith with the Creed in Christian
worship, the Jewish people profess their faith with the Shema in their synagogue services. The Shema - Isma in Maltese - is a summary of true religion: “Hear,
O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (6:4-5).
Matthew 22:34-40 has a Marcan parallel (12:28-34) which is an exchange
between Jesus and a scribe who is impressed by the way Jesus has conducted
himself in the previous controversy, and compliments him for the answer he
gives him. Jesus responds by saying he is, “not far from the kingdom of God
The scholarship of the Pharisees was the knowledge of the Law, which
they regarded as the sum of wisdom and the only true learning. The position of
scribe in the Jewish community was a respected place of leadership. At first
glance, the scholar’s question to Jesus appears to be very honest.
The teachers of the Torah (scribes and Rabbis) had always argued about
the relative importance of the commandments in the Old Testament. Scribes were
the scholars and intellectuals of Judaism. The Pharisees identified 613
commandments in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). Of those 613:
248 were positive, “you shall” commandments, while 365 were negative, “you
shall not” commandments. The fundamental question, “Which is the first of all
the commandments?” offers Jesus an important teaching moment as he is “put to
the test.”
In his response, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and the Shema,
recited daily by the Jews. Even though Jesus is asked for one commandment, he
provides two in his response. In combining the two commandments, Jesus goes
beyond the extent of the question put to him and joins to the greatest and the
first commandment, a second: love your neighbour (Leviticus 19:18). The double
commandment is the source from which the whole law and the prophets are
derived. Jesus does not discard other commandments. He explicitly adds: “On
these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:40). The
remarkable thing about the Marcan parallel is that the “scholar” expresses
agreement with Jesus by paraphrasing him without any hint of hostility or irony
(Mark 12:33-34).
Love of God and neighbour not an original idea of Jesus
Love of God and love of neighbour as the fulfilment of the law is not an
original idea of Jesus. It exists very early in the Hebrew Scriptures. There is
something unique, however, in Jesus’ assertion that they are alike. Jesus
teaches that we cannot have one without the other.
Motivation to love our neighbour springs from our love of God; our love
of God is demonstrated and strengthened by our love of neighbour. Love of
neighbour is not only a love that is demanded by the love of God, an
achievement flowing from it; it is also in a certain sense its antecedent
condition. There is no real love for God that is not, in itself, already a love
for neighbour; and love for God comes to its own identity through its
fulfilment in a love for neighbour.
Teaching of Moses and Jesus
Moses teaches in the Shema (cf.
Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:34) – and Jesus reaffirms in Sunday’s Gospel –
that all of the commandments are summed up in the love of God and
loving-kindness towards one’s neighbour. Every time that Jews recite the “Shema
Israel
God is Love
In light of these Scripture readings, let us reflect on two texts this
week. The first is #42 of Lumen Gentium,
the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church from the Second Vatican Council:
“God is love, and he who abides in love, abides in God and
God in Him.” But, God pours out his love into our hearts through the Holy
Spirit, Who has been given to us; thus the first and most necessary gift is
love, by which we love God above all things and our neighbour because of God.
Indeed, in order that love, as good seed may grow and bring forth fruit in the
soul, each one of the faithful must willingly hear the Word of God and accept
His Will, and must complete what God has begun by their own actions with the
help of God’s grace. These actions consist in the use of the sacraments and in
a special way the Eucharist, frequent participation in the sacred action of the
Liturgy, application of oneself to prayer, self-abnegation, lively fraternal
service and the constant exercise of all the virtues. For charity, as the bond
of perfection and the fullness of the law, rules over all the means of
attaining holiness and gives life to these same means. It is charity which
guides us to our final end. It is the love of God and the love of one’s
neighbour which points out the true disciple of Christ.”
The second text is from the opening paragraphs of Pope Emeritus Benedict
XVI’s first encyclical letter Deus Caritas Est (“God is Love”), published in 2005,
and beautifully summarizes the message of these Scripture readings:
“Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a
lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new
horizon and a decisive direction […] In acknowledging the centrality of love,
Christian faith has retained the core of Israel’s faith, while at the same time
giving it new depth and breadth. The pious Jew prayed daily the words of the Book
of Deuteronomy which
expressed the heart of his existence: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one
Lord, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all
your soul and with all your might” (6:4-5). Jesus united into a single precept
this commandment of love for God and the commandment of love for neighbour
found in the Book of Leviticus: “You shall love your
neighbour as yourself” (19:18; cf. Mk 12:29-31).
Since God has first loved us (cf. 1 Jn 4:10),
love is now no longer a mere “command”; it is the response to the gift of love
with which God draws near to us.”
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