Patrick Comerford
We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XII).
Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Matthew 19: 16-22 (NRSVA):
16 Then someone came to him and said, ‘Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?’ 17 And he said to him, ‘Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ 18 He said to him, ‘Which ones?’ And Jesus said, ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; 19 Honour your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ 20 The young man said to him, ‘I have kept all these; what do I still lack?’ 21 Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ 22 When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
Today’s Reflection:
The man who comes to Jesus for advice in this morning’s Gospel reading is first of all described as ‘someone’ or merely ‘one’ (εἷς). Later, in verses 20 and 22, he is a νεανίσκος (neanískos), a young man, a man in the early stages of adult life, even a young lad.
Earlier in this chapter, in Saturday’s reading (Matthew 19: 13-15), we came across the word παιδία (padía), a term of endearment, ‘my dear children,’ that is also used alongside a similar word τεκνία (teknía) in I John as a term of familiar address or endearment for adult members of the church – our equivalent today of men addressing their friends as ‘lads’, ‘boys’ or ‘guys’. This informed my reflection on Saturday, inspired by the song Τα Παιδιά του Πειραιά (Ta Pediá tou Pireá), ‘The Children of Piraeus’, sung by Melina Mercouri in the film Never on Sunday (1960).
But, somehow, tradition has raised the young man in this morning’s Gospel reading to the status of the ‘rich young man’ or even a ‘rich young ruler’. The word ‘rich’ is used nowhere in the original text, although we are told ‘he had many possessions’ (verse 22).
He has many possessions, but he knows this is not enough. He wants to possess eternal life, and comes to Jesus for advice.
Jesus advises him to keep the commandments, and then cites just five of the Ten Commandments, and in an apparently random order: you shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honour your father and mother.’ These are the social commandments, omitting the commandment not to covet, and none of the commandments about our relationship with God are cited.
Jesus then adds a commandment that is not in the Ten Commandments: ‘also, you shall love your neighbour as yourself.’
This too is the summation of Leviticus 19, the chapter that instructs the people on how to ‘be holy.’ Leviticus 19 begins with the commandment, ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy’ (19: 2), and then offers a list of laws that mainly have to do with relationships, from honouring parents (19: 3) to caring for the foreigners who live in the land (19: 33-34).
To ‘be holy,’ then, has to do with treating other people with justice and mercy, caring for the poor (19: 9-10), being honest (19: 11-13, 35-36), having respect for elders (19: 32), and, in general, acting with moral and ethical integrity.
At the heart of these laws is the commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’ (19: 18). It is part of a passage (19: 17-18) that instructs the people not to hate one another, not to take revenge or bear a grudge against one another, but to love one another. This verse and 14 other verses in this chapter in Leviticus end with the refrain of the Holiness Code: ‘I am the Lord.’
The point of the chapter seems to be that because the Lord is holy, and because humans are made in the image of God, those who are called to emulate God’s holiness are to do so by acting with mercy and love toward our fellow humans.
A very similar commandment is at the end of the chapter, in 19: 34: ‘The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.’
The commandment to ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ is not to be understood, then, as applying only to those we see as being like us. We are also commanded to love the ‘alien,’ that is, the foreigner or outsider in our midst.
The parable of the Good Samaritan – which begins by quoting Leviticus 19: 18 and the lawyer’s question, ‘Who is my neighbour?’ – makes much the same point (see Luke 10: 25-37).
Leviticus 19: 18 is, of course, the verse Jesus cites when he advises the ‘rich young man’ and he cites it again later as the second part of the greatest commandment.
A lawyer asks Jesus, ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ And Jesus replies: ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets’ (Matthew 22: 34-40).
In this morning’s reading, the young man says he has kept all these commandments. Jesus then says to him, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When the young man heard this word, ‘he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.’
Saint John of the Cross has written: ‘In the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly possessions and human success, but rather on how much we have loved.’
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in a similar vein in The Cost of Discipleship: ‘Earthly possessions dazzle our eyes and delude us into thinking that they can provide security and freedom from anxiety. Yet all the time they are the very source of anxiety.’
Today’s Prayers (Monday 19 August 2024):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘What price is the Gospel?’ This theme was introduced yesterday day with a programme update from Dr Jo Sadgrove, Research and Learning Advisor, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 19 August 2024) invites us to pray:
We pray for repentance and reflection by those whose ancestors colonised and enslaved others in the name of mission.
The Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God,
you are always more ready to hear than we to pray
and to give more than either we desire or deserve:
pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy,
forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid
and giving us those good things
which we are not worthy to ask
but through the merits and mediation
of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post Communion Prayer:
God of all mercy,
in this eucharist you have set aside our sins
and given us your healing:
grant that we who are made whole in Christ
may bring that healing to this broken world,
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
God of constant mercy,
who sent your Son to save us:
remind us of your goodness,
increase your grace within us,
that our thankfulness may grow,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s reflection
Continued tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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