THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

Her Doctrine and Morals

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

24 September 2023

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The Sunday

Sermon

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Dear Friends,

In today's Gospel reading (St. Matthew 22:34-46), the Pharisees question Jesus, and He, in turn, challenges them. The Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus and prove He was not Christ the Savior. The disputed question among them that they thought would ensnare Jesus became a snare to themselves. They were caught in the very trap they set for Jesus.

The Pharisees asked Jesus which is the greatest commandment. Without hesitation, Jesus tells them that the greatest commandment is to love God with our entire being. The second commandment is intimately connected with the first: to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. The two commandments become essentially one. We cannot say we love God if we hate our neighbor, who is made in His image and likeness. Nor can we say we love our neighbor if we do not love God. This lesson must be understood to truly appreciate the question Jesus next put to the Pharisees.

Jesus asked the Pharisees: "Whose Son is the Christ?" The Pharisees know that the Christ is to be born of the line of King David, so they answer Jesus that Christ is the Son of David. If Christ is the Son of David, how can David call his own Son his Lord? This question silenced the Pharisees.

To us, the answer is simple. Jesus Christ is both the Son of David and the Son of God. He is the Son of David in His Humanity and David's Lord because He is the Son of God. If we love God with our entire being and even more than we love ourselves, we must love Jesus because He is God. If we love our neighbor as we love ourselves, we must love Jesus because He is, in His Human Nature, our neighbor in our flesh.

The Pharisees could not logically keep the two greatest commandments because they rejected Jesus Christ. Their claim to love God is false because they hated their neighbor — Jesus Christ. Any claim to love their neighbor is false because they did not truly love God — Jesus Christ. They sought their own wills, honor, and glory rather than God's.

By becoming Man, Jesus united in a kind of holy marriage, Divinity and Humanity. In Jesus Christ, there is One Person but two Natures. When we love Jesus, we fulfill both great commandments because we love Him in His Divine Nature and in His Human nature. He is our God and our Neighbor. In Him, the two commandments are one and the same.

We are commanded to love rather than to fear. The person who serves God out of fear does well, but He is not yet justified. It is through love that marriage takes place, and the two become one. In marriage, two people become one flesh. Jesus has married the Divine Nature with Human Nature. If we wish to get into Heaven, we must be united with Him in a kind of matrimony so that we are one with Him. He is our Head, and we are a part of His Body. We must, individually and collectively, become the Bride of Christ. No one can enter Heaven except He who came down from Heaven, Jesus Christ. Our only way there is in Him. We must become one with Him in a kind of mystical marriage. So, where He (Our Head) goes, we (His Body) go.

Our Baptismal vows, very much, parallel marriage vows. We have renounced the devils and all they offer and give ourselves wholly and exclusively to God. We are made Children of God but also His spouse. We give ourselves to Him, and He gives Himself to us. We become one with Him.

The Catholic Church is the mystical Bride of Christ as well as the mystical Body of Christ. Christ lives and works through His Bride, His Body, and the Catholic Church. To enter Heaven, we must find and enter His true Church; His true Bride; His true Body. We cannot be indifferent, passive members. We must continually strive to be loving, active members of Jesus Christ. A suitable bride or wife must not be indifferent to her spouse and obligations. She should not fulfill the duties of her office as a fearful servant but rather through genuine love — giving herself entirely to her spouse.

In becoming one Body with Jesus, we give ourselves completely to God: heart, mind, and soul. This is the first and greatest commandment. In loving and serving Him in the Church, His Body, we fulfill the second commandment of loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.

May the Immaculate Heart of Mary inspire, guide, and protect us!