Here we come! We are now on the 30th
Sunday in Ordinary Time on Liturgical Cycle A, which ends with the week of the
34th Sunday, which is also known as Christ the King Sunday. We will
meet the Lord Jesus Christ as he is coming soon (Revelation 6:16; 3:3,11; 16:15;
22:7,12, 20). And on the 34th Sunday (Christ the King Sunday), we
will celebrate the Parousia. At the
same time, we will also be reminded that the judgement will follow his return
at the eschaton , as reflected in the
Gospel Reading for the 34th Sunday, A (Matthew 25:31-46; cf. John
5:29; 16:8; 19:29; Revelation 14:7; 20:11-13). What will come besides the
judgement upon Christ the King’s return is the consummation of the Kingdom,
into which we will be ushered in, passing the judgement (Revelation 21-22).
So, this is where we are heading.
And, the below is the path we have come through
recent Sundays Gospel Readings to reach the 30th Sunday.
From the 25th Sunday to the 27th
Sunday, we reflected on the Kingdom, which is coming with the King to start heightening
our attention to the eschaton as the
current Liturgical Cycle’s conclusion draws nearer. For our reflection on the Kingdom, we have
read the three vineyard parables (Matthew 20:1-16 – 25th Sunday; Matthew
21:28-32 – 26th Sunday; Matthew 21:33-43 – 27th Sunday) and one wedding feast
parable (Matthew 22:1-14-28th Sunday). Because we are coming to an
end of a Liturgical Cycle, Sunday Gospel narratives are also drawn from the
words of Jesus during his last days, as it is the case from the 26th
Sunday on. The Gospel Readings for the 29th Sunday (Matthew
22:15-21) and the 30th Sunday (Matthew 22:34-40) directly address
how Jesus was challenged and how he fended off traps set by his challengers.
Jesus has
been tested for his interpretation of the Law by Pharisees and Herodians on paying tax (Matthew
22:15-22)(29th Sunday) , by Sadducees on marriage and resurrection (Matthew 22:23-33),
by a scholar of the Law, one of the Pharisees, on the greatest commandment
(Matthew 22:34-40)(30th Sunday), and in return, Jesus asked the Pharisees about
their view on the Messiah (Matthew 22:41-46).
Starting with the Decalogue (Exodus 20:2-17), the
Law that Jesus was challenged to interpret had been given to the Israelites
through Moses on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 20:1-31:18) and even after coming down from
the mountain, in response to the Israelites’ fall to the golden calf idolatry
(Exodus 34:1-35:3), before building the Tabernacle.
With all this in mind, let’s delve into the 30th
Sunday Scripture Readings: Exodus 22:20-26; Psalm 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51; 1
Thessalonians 1:5c-10; Matthew 22:34-40).
A main running theme across these readings is love –
the love between God and His most beloved: the humans. We can see throughout
these readings how the love runs between God and the human and how it brings us
closer into union.
Think of dance - a kind of dance that brings a man
and a woman closer and closer – more intimate as the two continue on
dancing.
As a man initiates with his first move toward a woman
to get on going, God has initiated the dance of love with us by creating us in
His image (Genesis 1:27) and infusing His breath of life into us (Genesis 2:7).
Otherwise, we would be nothing but an unanimated object, molded dirt with no
life. Thanks to His breath of life, infused into us, we have gained the living
soul and thus have become animated to enjoy the dance of love with God. And,
our dance hall used to be Eden.
But we quit dancing with God as Satan tempted us to
dance rather with him. Perhaps, Satan was jealous of God because we were dancing
the love with Him in Eden, until Eve and Adam were fooled by him. So, we began
the dance of sin with Satan, and lost our dance hall, Eden. We have been
drifted away from God, upon losing Eden. We have been like a bunch of lost
sheep as we continue with the dance of sin with Satan.
Did God, who started everything with His love, give
up on us? Of course not! As Paul has written, love never dies (1 Corinthians 13:8).
So, God has made countless attempts to pull us from
the dance of sin – to pull us away from Satan’s snare. So, He has sent numerous
prophets to dance with Him again. So, we returned to Him and resumed the dance
of love with God, quitting on the dance of sin. But, again, through Satan’s
tricks, we fell back on dancing with Satan.
We have gone back and forth between God and Satan –
alternating the dance of love with God and the dance of sin with Satan.
God wants us to dance with Him solo. As we have read in the First Reading for
the 29th Sunday, Yahweh is the only God and there is no other God or
god, period (Isaiah 45:5), reflecting the First of the Decalogue (Exodus
20:22). And, this is why we must love God with all our heart and with all our
soul and with all our strength (Deuteronomy 6:5). In fact, Jesus cited this
commandment to love God above all and with all our heart, soul, and strength when
he was challenged by a scholar of Law, as in the Gospel Reading (Matthew 22:37).
So, putting Exodus 20:22 and Deuteronomy 6:5, we must understand that we cannot
fool around with Satan, wasting our life for the dance of sin with him. God, who
is love (1 John 4:8, 16), wants us to dance the love only with Him.
To redeem us from the dance of sin with Satan back
to the dance of love with Him, God has sent His only begotten Son – because he
so loved us, even though we have defied, betrayed, and disappointed Him
countlessly (John 3:16), by incarnating Himself as the Logos in the human flesh
(John 1:1) of Jesus, taking the flesh of Mary the Immaculate by the power of
the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18; Luke 1:35) to be with us (John 1:14), as
Immanuel to fulfill Isaiah 7:14. To bring us back to the dance of love with
Him, God the Son in Jesus shed his blood on the Cross and it is also the blood that
represents the Divine Mercy (Diary of St. Faustina, 299) and the blood that
washes our wedding garment (Revelation 7:14, cf, Matthew 22:11).
God, this time, has shown how strong His love for us
is. It is strong enough to have us in matrimonial union with Him through the
dance of love with him towards the eschaton,
upon the return of Christ the King (Revelation 19:6-9).
Do we want to be at this heavenly wedding with the King upon his return? Then,
we must love God with everything in us – with all our heart, soul, and
strengths, as Jesus cited Deuteronomy 6:5 as the supreme commandment (Matthew
22:37-38).
But, what is so interesting in the Gospel Reading is
that Jesus parallels this supreme commandment of loving God to the second
important one, to love our neighbors as ourselves, citing a portion of
Leviticus 19:18 (Matthew 22:39). Jesus puts Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18
in juxtaposition – as two sides of the same coin to state that these two
important commandments of love make the foundation, upon which the entire Torah
and prophecy depend (Matthew 22:40).
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus reminds us that the
dance of love with God, reflecting Deuteronomy 6:5, which is associated with
Exodus 20:22, also directs us to do the dance of love with our neighbors,
reflecting Leviticus 19:18.
Why these two commandments of love come together
through Jesus?
Remember, we ourselves and our neighbors have been
created in God’s image out of His love (Genesis 1:27). And, to show His love,
he “kissed” us and infused His life through His breath (Genesis 2:7) so that we
can dance the dance of love with Him – so that we can be in matrimonial union
with God the Son, Christ the King, the Lamb (Revelation 19:6-9).
And by putting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18
as the complete twofold commandment of love, we can image the Cross. Our dance
of love with God (Deuteronomy 6:5) makes the vertical part of the Cross, while our
dance of love with our neighbors, who share the same image of one God as ourselves,
(Leviticus 19:18) makes the horizontal part of the Cross. So we know that Jesus
the Son has transformed the Cross from the Roman symbol of shameful criminal
execution into the powerful sign of invincible love.
So, as we continue the dance of love with God and
with our neighbors, while drawing ourselves all together with the neighbors to God
as one, responding to Jesus’s desire expressed in John 14:20 and 17:21, we
expand this dance of love further with neighbors who do not yet know God, who
is love, as the Thessalonians, who began the dance of love with God and with
one another upon Paul’s evangelization, as reflected in the Second Reading (1
Thessalonians 1:5c-10). And, the First Reading reminds us that loving God
through loving our neighbors means to extend our dance of love to foreigners
and other vulnerable populations, such as those who are poor, widowed, and
orphaned (Exodus 22:20-26).
When we read and reflect the Gospel Reading on the
34th Sunday (Matthew 25:31-46) to celebrate the return of Christ the
King, we focus on the intersection of the Cross, where Deuteronomy 6:5 and
Leviticus 19:18 cross. We will deepen our understanding on why loving our
neighbors as ourselves can be a way of loving God with all our heart, soul, and
strength.
The dance of love we enjoy with God through our
fellow neighbors, who bears the same image of one God as ourselves, solidifies
us as one in order to be in one union with God the Father through the Son,
empowered by the Holy Spirit, as the Son is one with the Father (John 14:20;
17:21, cf 10:30), It is the rock-solid love that is invincible and immortal.
So, we praise God, who is this strong love, singing the Responsorial Psalm
(Psalm 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51).
Let us keep the dance of love – vertically and
horizontally – with God and with our neighbors to keep the Cross, until we meet
the Lord, our Christ the King on Parousia.
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