Father Christopher Zugger

15^th Sunday; 2 Cor. 4: 6-15, Matthew 22:35-46.

Glory to Jesus Christ. After my last posting, I ended up in the hospital, then rehab, then I got a Covid infection from the rehab and I was flattened at home for a few weeks. But here I am back again, ready to make trouble and to confront myself in what I write and what I preach.

Both readings 2 Cor. 4: 6-15 and Matthew 22:35-46 are very important. Paul starts out with the image from the beginning of the bible: Let light shine out of darkness – and he ties that to the entire process of conversion. It is a new life, a new way to exist. But then he goes on to say that we are like earthen vessels, pots made of clay, easily breakable, referring to the pots used in the temple to hold sin offerings. But we are not to be destroyed, to have an end with no hope, we are not filled with sin or destined to disappear like those pots –  we have the treasure of God’s grace, God’s energy in our ordinary, frail, sinful bodies.

These vessels will go away – our souls will not. Verse 14: He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. Into his presence. And these earthen vessels will be raised up in the resurrection of the dead, no longer as broken and damaged by sin, but glorified and raised up as Jesus was.

The question always is, how will we get there? Am I living in such a way that I will get there? Am I doing what is right? Am I living a life of conversion? The Gospel gives us the answer.

This scene in Matthew, chapter 22, is a set-up, a confrontational scene, but this kind of debate about Jewish theology also happened normally. The Pharisees created heavy burdens on people by trying to make all of over 600 various laws and rules equally important, but they also did a lot of popular education. They liked producing summaries, short answers to hard questions that could be easily memorized by anyone regardless of education. So, the question posed to Jesus is one of those that invites a summary:

Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?

Christ quotes two passages: Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  Deuteronomy actually says to love God with all your heart and soul and strength. But here it is changed to mind. Normally it was interpreted that strength meant using your wealth in God’s service, but Jesus is saying no, it has to be again from inside – from the mind, which itself was seen by the Jews as being rooted in the heart.

Then he adds Leviticus chapter 19, verse 18 Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Finally, he throws in this sentence – All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

That is NOT what was taught at the time. What was taught is this: The fate of the world hangs on observance of the law, service in the temple, and deeds of loving-kindness: truth, judgment, and peace. Jesus makes the fate of the world hang solely on how we love.

What kind of love? Loving God was to fulfill the covenant, the relationship established by God with humanity, through Abraham, then Moses, then David, but now through Christ, the last covenant. Romantic love is meant to imitate Christ’s love – the romantic love we have today really did not exist in this form before Christianity. People loved, we see that in ancient writings and in Scripture, but modern love is is an echo of the love shown on the cross. The fate of the world hangs on how these two commandments are lived, which are given on the Cross.

In the dialogue about the messiah being David’s son, there was a lot of debate then about who the messiah would be. In the dialogue Jesus is saying that the new supersedes the old – God’s new work in the kingdom, the whole mission of Jesus, is built upon the traditions and faith of the Jewish ancestors, but now, it is David’s legal descendant, David’s son, Jesus, who is fulfilling the mission as he gets close to enduring the passion. Remember the opening verse of Matthew’s gospel: An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah,^[the son of David, the son of Abraham.  Jesus is the son of David, the son of Abraham – his mission is built on the mission of the prophets and God’s beloved ones of Israel – but he will go so much further since He is the absolute fulfillment of all those prophecies and writing as the son of Mary and Son of God. His divine nature and His unique blood of God and Man on the Cross are given out in love.

No one could answer him regarding David or David’s son as the key – why? The Jewish leadership of that era had reached its limit – they had no answer to give anymore.

Jesus is going a new way – the love he is using is covenant love – faithful love – love that is mutual – love that continues though even if the other party has failed. Love does not depend on the other; if I love, I simply love. I do not demand a response, I do not make my love conditional on the other’s behavior, I continue to love. God loved Israel always, even during their breaks of the covenant by worshipping false gods and doing terrible things. God loves the Jewish people still. God loves me when I worship my false gods and I do terrible things. God loves me still.

Here’s the thing – while our culture throws around the word love, how much love is there?

Love is rooted in commitment, respect, hope, passion, and above all fidelity. Love must be constant. This is the huge leap of Christianity. We give that respect and fidelity and absolute love to everyone and to God, and we must be absolutely, completely, totally, radically, firmly, lovers of God, and so a holy nation set apart which loves our neighbors completely. And this is supposed to be consistent, all the time, no exceptions granted.

Where is that totally achieved? By Whom? 

Only on the cross, only by Christ Himself. But – here’s the key – we KNOW we are earthen vessels. We KNOW that the light comes from the hand of God. We KNOW that grace is God’s energy, poured out to us. And so, we KNOW that while we will fail – guaranteed unfortunately – to always live up to this commandment, we also KNOW that a) we have to get up and try again, and b) the future of humanity hangs on how well Christians do this. If we as the new Israel fail to change the world, how can we expect others to join into the Body of Christ?

But if we as the new Israel keep on trying, then we can indeed expand the Body of Christ, the Church. And that is a life of conversion.

So, going back to the beginning; Am I living in such a way that I will get there? Am I doing what is right? The answer is going to be no often. The goal is to make sure that the answer is yes much more often; that I say yes because of love and trust, not fear; that I am seriously working to love not only the ones I like, but the people who are “other” to me; and above all that I am striving – reaching, working – to fulfill what Jesus taught that day and be one with God and imitate God.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  Love your neighbor as yourself – everything hangs on those 2 commandments. We can say easily well all Christians do that; Well, all good people do that. Really? Look at the divisions that are ripping apart our own country, the horrible behaviors that people think are perfectly acceptable as we proclaim the need to preserve my rights, my interpretation of the laws and even the very constitution of the United States. We put down the right, the left, the moderate, the wrong religion, the wrong political view, the wrong interpretation of history – we suppress one another and refuse to forgive one another for past faults and we do so with a smile proclaiming our own righteousness. Seriously? This is how western civilization is supposed to be? Modern civilization is rooted in the achievements of Christianity – and the core of that is love, which includes forgiveness for past sins, and in the end, only love endures as Saint Paul wrote in chapter 13 of First Corinthians.  Love – the love that impels me forward into the embrace of the life-giving Trinity. Out of the three great theological virtues of faith, hope, and love, love endures – why? Because when we get to heaven, our faith and hope are fulfilled, and love will call my soul forward into the court of the great heavenly king. How I behave here determines my destiny getting into the presence of the Lord.

Does my speech impel souls towards the Holy Trinity? Do my actions, my internet searches, my Facebook postings, my video choices? How do I treat my spouse, my children, my in-laws, my relatives, my friends, my co-workers, the people I go to school with, my literal neighbor on my block? Do I even know the neighbors on my block? What do I do with my pets? What do I do when someone comes over to my house?

We are earthen vessels. We are flawed. But we are made to know God, to serve God, to love God, and in knowing and serving and loving Him, we must absolutely love those around us, and those far away from us, and all those made in the image and likeness of God, whether we agree with them or not, whether we like them or not.

If I do that, if I live as an earthen vessel relying on God’s great mercy, and if I live as if the fate of the entire world hangs on how well I live these commandments, then I – we – can indeed change the course of history and bring souls into that embrace of the Holy Trinity.

Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Finally, he throws in this sentence – All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

And quite honestly, that is why each of us is here: to be transformed by knowing divine love, to love others, and to bring souls to Christ.

One of the greatest of the Catholic mystics is Saint John of the Cross. He worked with Saint Teresa of Avila in reforming the Carmelite Order, and ultimately in calling the Spanish Church into a new explosion of spirituality. He was fiercely persecuted, wrongly imprisoned, beaten and whipped because of his preaching that cut to the hearts of those who heard him and responded with violence. Yet he wrote some of the most sublime, magnificent spiritual poetry ever composed. He also wrote that at the end of life, we will be judged by God as to how much we loved.

We are meant to walk with God, as Adam and Eve did before original sin broke that relationship between God and human beings. We can only do that if we imitate God. And once again from the little friar, Saint John of the Cross: Where there is no love, put love, and then you will find love.

We can change the course of our parish, our town, our Church, the entire world if only we do that.

Christ is among us.