«YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF» ALL THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS DEPEND ON THESE TWO COMMANDMENTS

Jesus immediately went further with the surprising novelty which has no parallels in ancient Jewish literature: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”. They, going back to the will of the Legislator, discerns that love of God and neighbor are inseparable from each other: one does not exist without the other.

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In the lectionary, the discussion with the Sadducees regarding the resurrection was omitted, we arrive, with the gospel of this XXX Sunday in Ordinary Time, to a new diatribe that opens with Jesus questioned by his adversaries, ma, Once again, to test it.

"During that time, i farisei, having heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together and one of them, a doctor of the law, he questioned him to test him: «Maestro, in the Law, what is the great commandment?». She answered him: «You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind". This is the great and first commandment. The second one is similar to that one: "You will love your neighbor as yourself". On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets ". (Mt 22,34-40)

These are the last days of Jesus in the holy city of Jerusalem, before the arrest and passion, and he knows that the circle around him is increasingly narrowing. The Pharisees enter the scene again on our Gospel page, and among them a doctor of the law, a theologian we would say, an expert in the Holy Scriptures, who once again addresses him by calling him: Rabbi (Maestro, teacher). In fact, something like this had never been seen before, that a carpenter had taken it into his head to teach and give advice on the Torah, on how to honor God, on what is permissible and what is prohibited. This was not well received as Ben Sira attested at the beginning of the third century BC: «He who is free from toil will become wise»¹; and in the Gospels there is never mention of an exegetical school of Jesus. The surprising interpretations of the Torah, which allow him to counter the dialectical pitfalls of his adversaries, they will not be replicated by his disciples. If Jesus is called rabbi (maestro) it is because of his authority and ability to delve into Scripture creatively. However, he is not the kind of teacher who trains students, to transmit their exegetical methods to them. While in rabbinic Judaism, which will assert itself after the destruction of the second Temple in 70, the student is destined to replace e, if possible, to surpass the master in wisdom, Jesus' disciples will remain such forever, without the possibility of emulating him in the intellectual field.

It was precisely the rabbis who had identified it in the Law, tor, more than ten words (Is 20,2-17), ben 613 precepts, so the question posed to Jesus seems relevant and was about simplification: «Maestro, in the Law, what is the great commandment?». It was a debated topic as evidenced by this rabbinical response: «Rabbi Simlaj these:

«On Mount Sinai they were announced to Moses 613 commandments: 365 negative, corresponding to the number of days of the solar year, e 248 positive, corresponding to the number of organs in the human body… Then came David, who reduced these commandments to 11, as it is written [in Ps 15]… Then came Isaiah who reduced them to 6, as it is written [in Is 33,15-16]… Then came Micah who reduced them to 3, as it is written: «What does the Lord ask of you, if not to practice justice, love pity, walk humbly with your God? » (Me 6,8) … Then Isaiah came again and reduced them to 2, as it is written: «Thus says the Lord: Observe law and practice justice" (Is 56,1) … Finally Habakkuk came and reduced the commandments to just one, as it is written: «The just will live by his faith» (Ab 2,4)» (Babylonian Talmud, Makkot, 24a).

Jesus replied highlighting, Once again, his ability to refer to what is fundamental and then propose a surprising novelty, tying a second commandment to the main one, declaring them similar and making both a rope on which the entire structure of the remaining commands is balanced, indeed the entire complex of the Word of God. If they detach from it they fall to the ground. This is the meaning of the verb Creamy ― I hang ― del verso v.40, that is, being hung, suspended, penzolare; which was made with depend: «On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets».

Where Jesus found the foundation to justify the greatness of the first commandment? In prayer, in this case that of Shemà (Listen) which opened and closed the day of the religious Jew and in particular that of shabbat, Saturday:

«Listen, Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is only one. You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your life and with all your mind" (Dt 6,4-5). And he said: «This is the great and first commandment».

Then Jesus immediately went further with the surprising novelty that it has no parallels in ancient Jewish literature: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lv 19,18). They, going back to the will of the Legislator, discerns that love of God and neighbor are inseparable from each other: one does not exist without the other. The command to love your neighbor is, in the Gospel of Matthew, the most cited Old Testament text: it is also found in Mt 5,43 e 19,19. It means that Jesus insisted on this precept, but also that for Matthew it was particularly necessary to remind believers in Christ, when they will no longer be understood and welcomed by their own people; Unfortunately, even from their own Jewish brothers.

Not surprisingly in our text the second commandment is defined as equal - ὁμοία - to the first, with the same importance and the same weight, while the evangelist Luke even unites them in one great commandment: «You shall love the Lord your God… and your neighbor» (LC 10,27). Jesus thus makes a bold and decisive innovation, and he does it with the authority of someone who knows that you cannot love God without loving people.

Love being a human feeling it cannot be said to represent a proper of the christian, instead, faith in Jesus is, the Christ, Son of the Father who revealed himself. And at the heart of this process is the manifestation of God as love. As everyone knows, the authors of the New Testament who explored the depth of this mystery are Paul and John. Precisely the latter, in one of his letters he stated that "God is love" (1GV 4,8.16) and who "loved us first" (1GV 4,19). Saint Paul will give us the gift of the hymn to charity (1Color 13). All these words addressed in the first instance to the disciples of Jesus of all times, they are now the distinctive sign of those who believe in him, so much so that Giovanni himself affirmed it: «If one says: I love God and hate his brother, he's a liar. For whoever does not love his brother whom he sees, he cannot love God whom he does not see. And this is the commandment we have from him: who loves God, you love your brother too" (1GV 4,20-21). And this is because the reference will always be to Jesus who placed himself as a point of comparison: «From this everyone will know that you are my disciples: if you have love for each other " (GV 13,35); that is, that love that puts "the new commandment" into practice, that is, last and definitive, left to us by him: “Love one another as I have loved you” (GV 13,34; 15,12).

To return to the example of the suspended rope the Christian will always find himself walking on this subtle path, avoiding leaning too much on one side and losing the balance of the other. Love towards God and towards others remains in constant balance and both do not constitute the emblem of a season. Even now, in the Church, greater emphasis is placed on solidarity and welcoming the poor and miserable, the Christian will always be a “man for all seasons”². And according to the teaching of Jesus there will always be someone who, walking down the unsupervised slope from Jerusalem to Jericho, could run the risk of finding themselves half dead: compassionate love will be the answer (LC 10,25-37).

Saint Augustine also seems to think so:

«Enunciating the two precepts of love, the Lord does not recommend that you love your neighbor first and then love God, but he puts God first and then his neighbor. But since you still don't see God, you will deserve to see it by loving your neighbor. Therefore love your neighbor, and look within yourself at the source from which love of neighbor flows: you'll see us, as much as possible, It gave. So start by loving your neighbor. Break your bread with those who are hungry, and bring the homeless into your home; if you see a naked person, news, and do not despise those who are of your flesh. By doing so, what will happen? Then your light will burst forth like a dawn (Is 58,7-8). Your light is your God. He is the morning light for you, because it comes to you after the night of this world. He neither rises nor sets, always shines… By loving your neighbor and taking an interest in him, you will walk. What path will you take, except that which leads to the Lord God, to the one we must love with all our heart, with all my soul, with all your mind? We have not yet arrived at the Lord, but we always have our neighbor with us. Therefore bring the one with whom you walk, to reach the One with whom you wish to remain forever"³.

from the Hermitage, 29 October 2023

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NOTE

¹ [Farmers, blacksmiths, potters, and all the manual laborers who toil day and night for wages] «Without them a city cannot be built, no one could stay or move around there. But they are not sought for the council of the people in the assembly they do not have a special place, they do not sit in the judge's seat and do not know the provisions of the law. They make neither education nor law shine,
they do not appear among the authors of proverbs, but they consolidate the construction of the world,and the job they do is their prayer" (Sir 38,24. 33-34)

² Sylvester R. S., The “Man for All Seasons” Again: Robert Whittington’s Verses to Sir Thomas More, Huntington Library Quarterly, Vol. 26, no 2,1963, pp. 147-154.

³ Augustine of Hippo, Commentary on the Gospel of Saint John, Homily 17, 7-9 (see WHO)

 

 

 

 

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