GOSPEL POWER l AUGUST 19, 2022 - Friday of 20th Week in Ordinary Time

Saint Ezekiel Moreno, bishop l Saint John Eudes, priest

Gospel: Mt 22:34-40 

34When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,  they gathered together, 35and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a  question to test him. 36“Teacher, which commandment in the law  is the greatest?” 37He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your  God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your  mind.’ 38This is the greatest and first commandment. 39And a second  is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40On these two  commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

 When Jesus is asked the greatest commandment, his  interrogator is obviously expecting a single answer. But  Jesus gives not only two but even says that “the second is  like the first,” implying that they go together like two sides of the  same coin that cannot be split apart. The implication is that worship  of God is a sterile exercise unless it bears visible and tangible fruits  in one’s relationship with fellow human beings. The author of the  First Letter of John offers what may be the best commentary on Jesus’  answer to the Pharisee’s testing. He writes: Those who say, “I love  God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not  love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they  have not seen (1 Jn 4:20). 

Lord Jesus, open wide our faith-vision that we may see you in our  neighbors and, therefore, treat each person with due reverence. Amen.