October 29, 2023
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 29, 2023 – Exodus 22:20-26; 1 Thessalonians 1:5C-10; Matthew 22:34-40
Yada, yada, yada. Does anyone know where that came from? Yada, yada, yada. Most people attribute it to Jerry Seinfeld, on the show Seinfeld, that aired in the 1990’s. But actually, it was begun by Lenny Bruce, a Jewish comedian, about two decades earlier than Jerry Seinfeld.
Now, my question for the children. Jesus said there were two great commandments. Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. Here’s the question. You answer by putting up your hands. How many of you understand what Jesus said? If you understand what Jesus said, put up your hands. We got one. You're not a child anymore, you don’t count. None of the other children understood “Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.” Okay. Good starting point.
I have been preaching for 53 years. That means that eighteen times I have preached on this Gospel. And this same story is told in another Gospel that we’ll read two years from now. Which means that eighteen more times I have preached on the other version of this Gospel. And it's always the same. And it's always very easy for most people to understand.
When I get my talk ready for Sunday, I look at a whole bunch of books. The first one is a five-volume series written by two theologians from France. The second one is a great big thick volume written by a Protestant minister named Reginald Fuller. The third one is a one- volume book written by two American theologians. The fourth one is another book that is only one volume. Then I have five - count ‘em - five pamphlets that go through the Sunday readings, week by week. I have a book about Matthew, a book about Mark, a book about Luke, a book about John. And I have a three-volume series of contemporary talks like mine, given by not only Catholic priests, but Protestant ministers, both male and female.
And, when you read everything for this Sunday, it looks like people are falling all over themselves to try and find something new to say about these two commandments. Because the two commandments - Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself - were not new with Jesus. Jesus plucked them out of the Old Testament. They were at least 700 years old when Jesus spoke them. But the scripture scholars tell us that they’re even older than that. These two commandments might be perhaps 2,500 to 3,000 years old, if not older. They’ve been around a long time. But my impression was, after I got finished reading all that stuff, was yada, yada, yada. People don’t know what else to say. They're kind of obvious to say.
So, when we study for the priesthood, one of the things we study is psychology. The very beginnings of psychology. What makes up a human person? A human person has three things. An intellect – I know. A will - I want, I don’t want. And emotions - I feel happy, I feel sad, and so on.
When we talk about love, most of the time we’re talking about how we feel about somebody else. But that’s not what the commandments are talking about. They’re talking about something very simple to understand but very hard to do. Our mind, our intellect, focuses on things that are good or that we think are good, and our will says, “I will love that person, place, or thing.” The reason why we sin is sometimes we pick out the wrong thing to think is good or our emotions get in the way and make us feel happy about things that should make us feel sad. But that’s what commandments are about. Focusing on someone who is good. God is good. The people that take care of me are good. The people I care for are good. And then choosing to love them.
So, I decided to pick out another famous phrase from the 1990’s to sum all this up. It’s created by a brand-new advertising company. The very first time they were hired to create an advertisement, they hit a home run. Because another brand-new company came to them. A company called Nike. And Nike was the little guy in the sneaker market. They wanted to attract attention. They said, “Create us an attractive slogan for our sneakers.” And this is what they came up with. Everybody says it now, all the time. “Just do it.”
Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. It’s not so complicated. Just do it.