Mt 22:34-40
34When the Pharisees heard that [Jesus] had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35and one of them [a scholar of the law] tested him by asking, 36“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38This is the greatest and the first commandment. 39The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Reflection:
You shall love the Lord, your God… You shall love your neighbor. Love of God and love of neighbor are concretely translated in the First Reading of this Sunday thus: “You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt” (Ex 22:20).
In our case, aliens or foreigners are not people from other countries who are staying in our land. Foreigners are the strangers we meet every day—the jeepney drivers, the vendors, the beggars. They are the nameless and faceless people in our society. They are also the unknown neighbors in our community.
Foreigners are the family you are not close to, the brother or sister you are not in good terms with, the son you are angry with, the daughter you hold a grudge with, the husband or wife you mistrust. He is even the God you forget to call on. We encounter different foreigners every day. And the words of God to Moses are clear: do not molest or oppress a foreigner. This is a concrete test of the commandments of God.
Be kind to everyone you meet today.