Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
How many of us stop to think before we pause at a stop sign or a red light? How many of us have to remind ourselves to drive on the right side of the road? Probably not very many of us, for these American traffic laws have become such a part of our lives that they are practically ingrained upon us. We don’t have to make a huge effort to follow these laws. And yet, ironically, these laws are mostly arbitrary. After all, in some places they drive on the left side of the road.
As we look at today’s first reading from the book of Deuteronomy, we hear Moses encouraging the people to follow the commands and statues of the Lord, the law given to them by God. Moses sees the following of God’s law as a way of loving God and listening to his voice. Like our traffic laws, this law of God should be ingrained in the people, so that they don’t have to make a conscious effort to follow God’s law. As Moses points out to them, the law is not something foreign or far away, but rather it is already present in the mouths and hearts of the people.
We see evidence of that in the gospel reading from Luke. The scholar of the law who questions Jesus knows full well what is written in the law in regard to inheriting eternal life. He easily quotes Deuteronomy 6:5 when Jesus poses the question to himself. But the scholar’s next question reveals that he does not have a full understanding of the law, despite the fact that he is a law scholar. Jesus’ answer, commonly known as the story of the Good Samaritan, is instructive. The priest and the Levite who pass by the injured man are both striving to adhere to Jewish ritual law, which was important for maintaining the reverence and sanctity of their liturgical services. But they allow this preoccupation with the letter of the law to preclude their adherence to the spirit of the law. They are called to worship God with pure hands, yes, but they are also called to worship God with pure hearts that love both God and neighbor. External purity is to no benefit if it is not accompanied by internal purity.
Too often we let ourselves fall into an easy contrast here wherein we believe Jesus is simply criticizing and disregarding the law. If we tend toward this, we must remind ourselves that Jesus did not come to abolish, but to fulfill the law. The words of Moses still ring true today; we are called to be faithful to the law of God that is written on our hearts. Jesus was not challenging the scholar’s quotation of Deuteronomy, so much as calling us all to a greater fidelity to those words. God’s law is a law of love. We are called to love.
And we have no better example of God’s love than that which is revealed in the Trinity. In the Trinity we see love exchanged among Father, Son and Spirit. This is no selfish love, but a self-giving, life-giving love wherein the Son became incarnate and walked among us in the person of Jesus: “the image of the invisible God” as he is described in our second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians ( Col 1:15). God loved us so much he sent his only Son, and that Son loved us so much that he died on the cross for us. The Holy Spirit sustains us and strengthens us, giving us the ability to love as God loves, in a sacrificial and unselfish way.
Now, although we want the law of God to ingrained upon us and habituated in us as are traffic laws, we cannot stop there. This law of love is a conscious law just as it is a conscious love. Each day we must wake up and offer all of our actions to God out of our love for him. We must live morally not just out of a sense of obligation, but out of a willingness to love. We must not allow self-righteousness to prevent our kindness and compassion to our neighbors in need. As we begin this 15th week of Ordinary Time, let us recommit ourselves to living the law, loving God and neighbor.
- Maria Morrow