Friday Gospel Recharge: A Reflection on the Gospel of Matthew 23: 34-40

 

Friday Gospel Recharge Series

Friday Gospel Recharge

A Reflection on Matthew 23:34-40 

(20th Friday of Ordinary Time, Year B of the Liturgical Calander, 2024)

True Love's essence in a secular world

The phrase “love is love” is an empty and meaningless expression because it fails to define what love truly is. By merely repeating the word, it offers no deeper insight. This phrase does not originate from Catholic tradition, where words are used with care and intent. We can therefore conclude that its roots are secular, reflecting the world’s distorted priorities regarding the true essence of love: a forgetting of what it truly means to love. 

 

In today’s Gospel, the Pharisees challenge Jesus, asking Him what the greatest commandment is. The text reveals their malicious intent: they seek to find fault in Jesus, hoping to humiliate Him if His answer deviates from tradition. In this way, the behaviour of the Pharisees mirrors modern misunderstanding of love. They are intent on causing harm, and as we know, evil has no place in love. Their actions reveal a forgotten or ignorant understanding of love’s virtue, for if they truly understood their actions, they would recognise that their motive to be anything but loving.

 

However, Jesus surprises the Pharisees on two fronts. First, He recites the Shema, reminding them what they already know, that love of God is before all things. Then, He elaborates on what this love should look like, highlighting that their actions have proven otherwise. Love of God is not merely lip service but a tangible experience, manifested in our love for others as we love ourselves. When we respect and care for others our love for God – with all our heart, soul, and mind – is truly observed.

 

Loving others as ourselves requires a level of self-denial. Many people are in need – this is evident in the tabloids, in our communication with others, and in those we encounter who seem lacking. To address their needs, we provide from our surplus, even at the cost of our own comfort, so that the deprived may experience the love we have for ourselves - the love they too would have for themselves if they were not in want.

 

Loving our neighbour as ourselves entails more than the offering of material assistance; it also includes sharing of intellectual gifts, such as truth, with those who are ignorant, even if it puts us in danger. This act of love also makes the lover vulnerable. Throughout the four Gospels, Jesus often risked His own safety for the sake of others, as seen in his preaching ministry. This is reflected in today’s Gospel, where Jesus reminds the Pharisees that sacrificial love towards our neighbour is integral to fulfilling the greatest commandment: love of God. Even before Jesus could teach them, they were already set on to discredit him. Preaching the truth from a place of love can indeed come at a high cost. 

 

In a world where individualism dominates and error often prevails over truth, it’s no surprise that a meaningless and empty phrase like “love is love” has replaced a truer understanding of love. As Christians, we have a duty to restore love’s true meaning. Jesus implores us to actualise this love by mirroring our love for self in our love for our neighbour. We are not called to a self-centered life, as this contradicts Jesus’s teaching from this Gospel. God has breathed life into our souls so that we may share our lives with others, just as He has shared His life with us. Every Christian is called to preserve their life, which means having a proper love for self. Only when we love ourselves properly can we extend that love freely to others, loving them for their own sake. By doing so, we dignify their lives and help them reach their full potential. 

 

As we journey towards the 21st Sunday of the liturgical calendar, let’s commit to living for others through the love we have for ourselves. This kind of love is the only way we can truly love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. It not only uplifts others but also helps us to reach our potential: to love God more perfectly in every thought, word, and deed. Let’s not be afraid now to commit our lives to loving others and God in this manner.

Friday Gospel Recharge: A Reflection on the Gospel of Matthew 13: 54-58

Friday Gospel Recharge Series

Friday Gospel Recharge

A Reflection on Matthew 13:54-58 

(17th Friday of Ordinary Time, Year B of the Liturgical Calander, 2024) 

Avoiding Familiarity's Contempt

We are all familiar with the phrase “familiarity breeds contempt.” This expression suggests that an overexposure to someone can lead to annoyance or disdain. However, the phenomenon of contempt arising from familiarity has various associated causes.

One explanation why this phenomenon occurs is boredom. Over time, due to repetition and over exposure, we can become bored with a person. When this happens, their presence can lead to a sense of ennui and frustration. As a result, we may begin to hold those we once valued with contempt. 

In today’s Gospel, we glean again the people’s contempt for Jesus. Like many of us, Jesus is rejected by his people due to familiarity. The Gospel recounts how the people asked, “is this not the carpenter's son?” They were amazed at Jesus’s teachings, wondering where it had originated. However, their contempt for Jesus was not based on boredom or frustration on unmet expectations for the Gospel tells us that he left his audience astonished. Instead, they rejected Jesus based on his social standing as a commoner. As a commoner, Jesus knew better: he had no right to amaze them with his teaching; instead he was supposed to remain silent.

It is obvious Jesus understood the concept of familiarity breeding contempt. In this Gospel, Jesus is given the last reply, addressing his adversaries with the saying, “a prophet is only despised in his own country and his own house,” before moving on to a neighbouring village to preach. Here, Jesus highlights that familiarity proved an obstacle to his ministry.

As baptised people, we are commissioned to spread the Gospel, often beginning where it’s most convenient: familial territory. It is natural to begin there because there is degree of attachment to friends and kinsmen that we don’t have with strangers; even Jesus began there. However, this Gospel teaches an important lesson: those we know and love dearly will reject us.

This does not mean we can’t communicate the Gospel to people we love. Home is often where our heart is, and that’s where we usually begin. Effective preaching and teaching must be done intelligently to avoid breeding contempt among those who know us well. This might mean steering away from a particular topic or waiting for the right time to share with those who might normally find a topic displeasing. For instance, people don’t like discussing the moral conundrum of premarital sex or divorce, and lapsed Catholics may not want to be reminded of their obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and Feast Days of Obligations such at Easter and Christmas. Therefore, any sharing of the Good News requires discernment about when and where to communicate it.

The late pope Benedict XVI, in his encyclical Deus Caritas Est, wrote that a “Christian knows when to speak about God and when it is better to say nothing.” His sentence emphasises the discernment that us Christians must exercise in our interactions with others. It suggests that actions can speak louder than words sometimes. This idea aligns with the notion that familiarity requires a balance of words and deeds. To avoid breeding contempt among those familiar to us, we must be smart in our interactions, speaking at the right time while always being a virtuous agent in the world, guided by the Holy Spirit. 

While we should be prudent in our preaching, there will be times even in our best efforts may give rise to contempt. Reflect on Jesus in today’s Gospel. Jesus, being God, he knew when to speak and when to remain silent. As Christians, we ought to be prepared to face rejection and learn to accept it without personalising it, especially when it results from our work in Jesus’s name. Recently, the Opening Ceremony of the Paris Olympics demonstrated this contempt in its blasphemous parody of the Last Supper, which hurt and offended many of us Christians. While we may feel sensitive to this, it's important to remember that blasphemy is ultimately against God and not us, even if we are the recipients.

Many Christians think that they cannot change anything. However, we should stand up and be counted, not only to at least try to change something but also to register our protest when necessary. Without doing anything, we are passively blaspheming as well. Again, Jesus leads by example, objecting the people’s contempt for him, in the last reply, saying, “a prophet is only despised in his own country…”  Following Jesus’s lead, we can register our objection by sending emails, organising a parish petition, or encouraging the local Ordinary to protest on an international level, showing that making fun of our faith and traditions is not acceptable. 

This week, let’s make pray for the right words to share with others and the courage to accept rejection for the sake of our Lord and Saviour.