30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Exodus 22:22-26
1 Thessalonians 1:5-10
Matthew 22:34-40

A. Text/Context
• I am pretty sure that everyone of you is familiar with the 10 commandments or the Decalogue
• And this is the same 10 commandments that the Jewish people are following included in their own law known as the Torah
• And in the gospel today, there is this expert of the law known as a Scribe who approaches Jesus and asked Teacher which commandment in the law is the greatest
• The intention of the Scribe who asks the question about the greatest commandment is really to trap Jesusbecause they know very well that in their Jewish religion known as Judaism all the 10 commandments must be followed, period
• If Jesus will answer any of the commandment as the greatest, then, he can be accused of blasphemy
• Because if there is the greatest commandment then the rest will not be important
• But they were so awed and surprised of the answer of Jesus when he answered that there are only 2 great commandments and that includes all the 10
• And today the gospel tells us of the 2 greatest commandments and the first is, You shall love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind
• The second, You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself

B. Human Situation
• My brothers and sisters, these 2 great commandments is actually the summary of the 10 commandments
• If you are very observant, the first 3 commandments: love God above all things, thou shall not put the name of God in vain, thou shall keep holy Sunday is concerned with the love of God, the first great commandment
• And if you continue with the 4th up to the 10th honor thy father and mother, thou shall not kill, thou shall not commit adultery, thou shall not steal, thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor, thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s wife or husband, thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s goods
• The last seven is summarized by the 2nd greatest commandment: love your neighbor as you love yourself the second greatest commandment
• In our lives as Christians, sometimes we are placed in a dilemma how intense do we have to follow the 2 great commandments
• For example we want to express our love and honor to God so we attend mass every Sunday because it is in the third commandment, and not only Sundays but all the holy days of obligation
• That is really good we are so obedient to the law, and this is one thing, and it is also another thing if back home you treated your house help or the driver so badly, you speak so much ill of our neighbor
• Do you think we love God in the way how we treat our neighbors?
• Then in the ordinary weekdays we manipulate the computations in our offices, in our businesses, spreading scandals in gossips, etc.
• At other times also we pray our devotions but we do not really care about the needs of others
• We call it apathy, indifference, callousness. We pray a lot but we are so apathetic to what is happening around
• We do not care about throwing our garbage, it’s the duty of the city government anyway
• There are charity projects or fund-raising for the good of the community we do not care I am so busy with my obligations leave it to them
• What I mean here is we cannot separate our love of God from our love of neighbor
• A real Christian cannot profess to say that he loves God without loving his neighbor
• Can we say that we still love God because we attend all the Sunday masses yet you circumvent the truth in your testimony?You did not follow the 8th commandment
• Can you say that you love God because you were so successful in organizing the street children and feed and house them so that they become so productive in society, yet you lived a life that is so immoral! You did not believe in the 6th commandment
• If truly a person loves God that person feels the urge and the need to help others especially those who are in need
• At the same time that person takes great care not to offend God and his neighbor ineverything he does
• Here in the 2 great commandments contains all the 10 laws of the commandments. There is no exception

C. Challenge
• Today we are reminded that the two great commandments cannot be different from one another because they are inseparable
• If we profess to love God then we must be faithful to our spiritual obligations in honoring and worshipping God and it must be expressed by the love and charity we show to our neighbors
• If it is difficult to love our neighbors whom wesee, then, it is even more difficult to love God whom we do not see
• We cannot profess that we love God, but we do not care for our social duties and obligations
• Our love of God in the Christian faith has a social dimension
• That expression of love of neighbors is what the 1st reading is all about that even to people we do not know we must be kindhearted
• The 2nd reading is telling us that the Christians living in Thessalonica have already reaped the fruits of their kindness and charity and they live in joy with the Holy Spirit
• The same with us. If we love God and our neighbor we will reap the spiritual benefits of it peace of mind, calm and serenity of heart
• And lest we forget, if we do good to our neighbor, we did it for God
• And all the loving things that we did, the expression of love of God, the expression of charity to others will always come back to us more than what we expected
• Our good and provident God will reward us a hundred fold