Thirtieth Sunday of the Year, A – October 29, 2022
Readings: Ex 22:20-26; Responsorial Psalm Ps 18:2-3bc4.47.51ab (R.2136); 1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10 & Gospel Matthew 22:34-40.
Theme: Love Conquers All!
Sunday Synopsis
The first reading urges us to be kind and considerate to strangers, widows, and orphans because God hears their cry for vengeance. In the second reading, St. Paul demands that we copy the Thessalonians by being examples of faith, hope and love in our world. The gospel reading presents us with Christ’s message of vertical and horizontal dimensions of love. He said love of God and neighbour, “This is the greatest and the first commandment.” We are challenged to change the world by embracing love of God and neighbour bearing in mind that it fulfils the whole law and the prophets.
Introduction
Friends in Christ, today the Church wants us to take some lessons in love. Our liturgy challenges us to reflect about our ultimate destiny. To start with, the Penny Catechism reveals that God the Father created the world, God the Son redeemed the world and God the Holy Spirit sanctifies the world. It goes further to stress that God created us to know him, love him, serve him in this world and be happy with him in the next. Since God is love and our ultimate destiny is in God, it then means that at the end of time, love would conquer all. Our reflection shall touch on the various types of love. With the aid of appropriate narratives, it shall present practical lessons as a handy Sunday recipe.
Background and Summary of Readings
The first reading (Ex 22:20-26) urges us to be kind and considerate to strangers, widows, and orphans because God hears their cry for vengeance. The reading challenges us on demands of practical religion.
In the second reading (1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10), St. Paul demands that we copy the Thessalonians by being examples of faith, hope and love in our world.
The gospel reading (Matthew 22:34-40) presents us with Christ’s message of vertical and horizontal dimensions of love. In fact, he said: “You must 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 resembles it: “You must love your neighbour as yourself.” He further stressed that: “On these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets also.”
Types of Love
a). Philia: Philia is the love which exists between parents and their children, children with their parents and kids with their siblings. This stems from the natural bond that exists in a family. As a family word, philia is the brotherly or sisterly affection which unites us with one another in a unique way (Rom 12:10). This fulfils the horizontal dimension of love.
b). Eros: Erotic love stems from concupiscence of the flesh which St. Thomas Aquinas identifies in his Summa Theologica as one of the causes of sin. Aquinas makes the point that we are induced to sin through inordinate desires – The lust of the flesh includes sexual permissiveness and vain desires. The devil excites within us the concupiscence of the flesh so as to commit sin. The “lust of the flesh,” appears in two more significant passages of Scripture – the temptation of Eve in the Garden (Gen 3:1-6) and the temptation of Christ in the wilderness (Matthew 4:8-10). St. Paul warns us to “cast off the works of darkness” (Rom 13:12) and make no provision for the desires of the flesh. Paul’s warning that we should shun concupiscence of the flesh is timely.
c). Agape: This is the love of God. It is often sacrificial. As the purest love, agape is the kind of love that Christ demonstrated by the manner of life, death on the cross and his resurrection. All that Christ asks of us is: “Love one another, just as I have loved you.” (Jn.15:12). Little wonder on several occasions, Jesus would “took pity on his people” and satisfy their hunger (Matthew 14:13-21). This touches on the vertical dimension of love.
Moving Narratives
An 18-year-old student was struggling to pay his fees. He was an orphan, and not knowing where to turn for money, he came up with a bright idea. He and a friend decided to host a musical concert on campus to raise money for their education. They reached out to the great pianist Ignacy J. Paderewski. His manager demanded a guaranteed fee of $2000 for the piano recital. A deal was struck, and the boys began to work to make the concert a success.
The big day arrived. But unfortunately, they had not managed to sell enough tickets. The total collection was only $1600. Disappointed, they went to Paderewski and explained their plight. They gave him the entire $1600, plus a cheque for the balance $400. They promised to honour the cheque at the soonest possible. “No,” said Paderewski. “This is not acceptable.” He tore up the cheque, returned the $1600 and told the two boys: “Here’s the $1600. Please deduct whatever expenses you have incurred. Keep the money you need for your fees. And just give me whatever is left”. The boys were surprised and thanked him profusely.
It was a small act of kindness. But it clearly marked out Paderewski as a great human being. Why should he help two people he did not even know? We all come across situations like these in our lives. And most of us only think “If I help them, what will happen to me?” The truly great people think, “If I don’t help them, what will happen to them?” They don’t do it expecting something in return. They do it because they feel it’s the right thing to do.
Paderewski later went on to become the Prime Minister of Poland. He was a great leader, but unfortunately when the World War began, Poland was ravaged. There were more than 1.5 million people starving in his country, and no money to feed them. Paderewski did not know where to turn for help. He reached out to the US Food and Relief Administration for help. The head there was a man called Herbert Hoover — who later went on to become the US President. Hoover agreed to help and quickly shipped tons of food grains to feed the starving Polish people.
A calamity was averted. Paderewski was relieved. He decided to go across to meet Hoover and personally thank him. When Paderewski began to thank Hoover for his noble gesture, Hoover quickly interjected and said, “You shouldn’t be thanking me Mr. Prime Minister. You may not remember this, but several years ago, you helped two young students go through college. I was one of them.” This story which I culled from Propel Steps (2017) is a true-life story that is said to have happened in 1892 at Stanford University.
Pastoral Lessons
- Do Not Oppress the Vulnerable: The first reading warns us not to oppress strangers, widows and orphans noting that if we oppress them and they cry to God, His anger will flare upon us because he is their defender. This means that no one who fights God ever lives or wins.
- Care Truly: Our liturgy and narrative reveals that the world would be a wonderful place if we truly care for one another. There is enough for everybody’s need but there isn’t enough for everybody’s greed.
- Serve God:It goes further to stress that God created us to know him, love him, serve him in this world and be happy with him in the next. Since God is love and our ultimate destiny is God, it means that at the end of time, love would conquer all.
- Take to Faith and Love: In a country where palliatives that are meant for the poor are not distributed, our lead story reminds us that love and generosity are conjoined-twins – you cannot have one without the other. They reveal the depth of faith and works. How can we claim to love God who is unseen yet be brutal to our neighbour? (1 John 4:20).
- Practice Vertical and Horizontal Love: Our reflection touches on the various types of love and the vertical and horizontal dimensions of love. It urges us to take to vertical and horizontal love dimensions of love as a necessary requirement for pleasing God.
Summary Lines
- The first reading urges us to be kind and considerate to strangers, widows and orphans because God hear their cries to the heavens for vengeance.
- In the second reading, St. Paul demands that we copy the Thessalonians by being examples of faith, hope and love in our world.
- The gospel reading presents us with Christ’s message of vertical and horizontal dimensions of love.
- He said: “You must 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 resembles it: “You must love your neighbour as yourself.”
Conclusion
We must learn to demonstrate true love of God and neighbour by being kind and tender hearted especially to those who cannot repay us like strangers, widows, and orphans. By doing this, our sins shall we wiped away, the world would be a better place and we shall store up treasures for ourselves in heaven. What we urgently need in our Church and world is a blend of the ladders of vertical and horizontal dimensions of love powered by agape and expressed in philial love. May the Holy Spirit help us to shun a warped view of love which borders around erotic definition and be drawn by agape. Amen. Have a terrific week ahead!
