Monday, October 24, 2011

30th Sunday of Ordinary Time: What God has joined no human being must separate


The Pharisee’s were always trying to trip up Jesus. In the Gospel today, they ask him, “which is the greatest commandment?” Of course at the time of Jesus, there were more than 600 prescriptions of the law including the 10 Commandments. Jesus answered the Pharisees by splicing together two passages from the Torah, the first from Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the Lord you God with your whole heart, with your whole soul, and with all your mind” and the second from Leviticus 19:18 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
I’m reminded of another time the Pharisees tried to trick him and Jesus did something similar. Once they asked him if it was lawful for a husband to divorce his wife. Jesus answered by quoting from the book of Genesis: from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ But then he added something curious. Jesus said, “What God has joined men must not divide.” Every time I officiate at a wedding, after the couple exchanges vows, I say these very words, “What God has joined men must not divide.”
These words have an immediate context within the debate concerning divorce, but I think they have a deeper, more spiritual meaning. Jesus answered the question about the greatest commandment by joining together two commandments: love God and love your neighbor. What God has joined we must not divide. In other words, you cannot love God if you don’t love your neighbor. St. John says in one of his letters, “the man who says he loves God but despises his neighbor is a liar and does not have the love of God in him.” Likewise, you cannot love your neighbor if you don’t love God.
The problem with the Pharisees was they had separated what God had joined. They tried to love God without loving their neighbor. And because of that, their claim to love God was suspect. By not loving their neighbor, the Pharisees demonstrated that really their observance of the law was not an act of true worship but rather of self-promotion. Instead of leading them to love of neighbor, their observance of the law led them to scorn others who failed to live up to their standards. Because they separated what God had joined, they failed in both.
Now today, there are some people who, like the Pharisees, suffer from self-righteousness and do not love their neighbor as Christ has instructed. But by and large, I don’t think this is the greatest fault. People are generally quite charitable. I see young people involved in many service projects. The Dempsey Challenge raised over 1 million dollars this year. And whether you agree with them or not, the fact that many people are involved in the Occupy Wall Street protest is a sign that people are concerned for justice and equality. It seems to me the problem today isn’t so much love of neighbor as it is love of God. If you separate what God has joined, you fail in both. Even with the best intentions.
Saturday October 22nd is the memorial feast of Blessed Pope John Paul II. I was privileged to attend the 2002 World Youth Day in Toronto Canada. The Pope made a comment that I have always remembered. To the youth of the world, He said:

“Dear friends, Christ alone is the cornerstone on which it is possible solidly to build one’s existence. … The twentieth century often tried to do without that cornerstone, and attempted to build the city of man without reference to Him. It ended by actually building that city against man! Christians know that it is not possible to reject or ignore God without demeaning man.
The aspiration that humanity nurtures, amid countless injustices and sufferings, is the hope of a new civilization marked by freedom and peace. But for such an undertaking, a new generation of builders is needed. Moved not by fear or violence but by the urgency of genuine love, they must learn to build, brick by brick, the city of God within the city of man.
Allow me, dear young people, to consign this hope of mine to you: you must be those "builders"! You are the men and women of tomorrow. The future is in your hearts and in your hands. God is entrusting to you the task, at once difficult and uplifting, of working with him in the building of the civilization of love.”

My brothers and sisters, Pope John Paul II reminded us that the “spirit of the world” offers many false illusions and parodies of happiness and that the greatest deception, and the deepest source of unhappiness, is the illusion of finding life by excluding God, of finding freedom by excluding moral truths and personal responsibilities. Let us not separate what God has joined. Let us neither exclude God or our neighbor from our lives. Let us seek the justice and good we long for by loving the Lord our God with our whole heart, soul and mind and let us love our neighbor as ourselves. Blessed John Paul II, pray for us.