30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mt 22:34-40
October 29, 2023

Jesuit, scientist, philosopher, and theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin is credited with saying: The world is round so that friendship may encircle it. This sounds like something found in a greeting card rather than in one of his numerous scholarly works. Still, it is comforting to imagine planet Earth being completely surrounded by a powerful and protective “love force.”

The suggestion that: The world is round so that friendship may encircle it, brings to my mind the ozone layer…an invisible blanket of gas protecting life forms on Earth, by filtering harmful ultraviolet light from the Sun. That’s how I envision a shield of friendship and love…an invisible barrier, ensuring that we can lead our lives in an atmosphere of peace and justice.

Tragically, satellites photograph, measure, and report extensive damage to the ozone layer caused by human ignorance, neglect, and even intentional acts. If technology could examine this “love layer,” just think what we would see. There would be gaping wounds over Ukraine, and certainly over the Holy Land, as well as throughout the Middle East. In fact, “hotspots” would be evident all around our poor planet…some large…others that go almost unnoticed…but each threatening this protective, spiritual love force about which Teilhard speaks.

Every bigoted thought, unkind word, selfish act, or lie is a strike against this “iron dome” of love with which The Creator encircles us. The very question that Jesus responded to during the brief exchange reported in today’s Gospel was motivated by jealousy and malice. What Matthew reports is a perfect example of an attack on love. The hypocrisy of this religious leader is a totally loveless act of a kind that jeopardizes the atmosphere of peace, in which human nature can thrive. The Pharisee and everyone listening to his efforts to entrap Jesus clearly knew the answer to a trick question.

Love of God always was, and always will be, the first and greatest commandment.

But The Lord spoiled whatever follow-up question this devious person had planned touse to ensnare Jesus. With a preemptive strike, the Lord linked “the firs t and greatest” to a second law…a law that the man was in clear violation of…love of neighbor.

A contemporary theologian, Fr. Richard Rohr, has written: The greatest commandment is to love God, and the best way I know to love God is to love what God loves—which is everything!

Isn’t that just another way of saying that no one can claim to keep the first and greatest commandment while violating the second commandment? Through Jesus Christ, Love of God has been inseparably linked with the Love of Neighbor.

Now here’s the Good News!

Although ignorance, neglect, and even intentional acts are damaging the ozone layer to the point that some experts warn that life on this planet is in jeopardy…the “friendship” that encircles and protects us will withstand every attack.

The “friendship” encircling Earth and serving as a protective spiritual barrier for all life on our planet is THE LOVE OF CHRIST! St. Paul tells us: I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We are clearly capable of damaging the ozone to the point of causing irreparable damage to our planet. But the friendship which encircles and protects us is THE LOVE OF CHRIST…which is eternal.

That is something we should be eternally grateful for. And the proper way to Thank God for this powerful protection of unconditional love is to love what God loves…EVERYTHING AND EVERYBODY!