30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Matthew 22:34-40
The commandments of love
POPE FRANCIS TEACHES
The Psalms lead to adore God and love His children
The psalms allow us to contemplate reality with God’s very eyes.
My attention was caught during the reading of the Bible passage at the start of the catechesis by a mother in the crowd who was cuddling her crying child, this is what God does with us, like that mamma. These beautiful images of a mother's tenderness are the image of the Church, the symbol of God's tenderness for us.
Never silence a crying baby in Church, never, because it is the voice that attracts God's tenderness.
The psalms help us not to fall into the temptation of the wicked, that is, of living, and perhaps also of praying, as if God does not exist, and as if the poor do not exist.
The prayer of the Psalms are a fundamental reality of life, because the reference to the absolute, the transcendent, which the spiritual masters call the “holy fear of God”, makes us completely human. Prayer prevents us from venturing into life in a predatory and voracious manner.
The true spirit of prayer in the heart allows us to contemplate reality with God’s very eyes.
Prayer should be the centre of life, from the heart. If there is prayer, even a brother, a sister, even an enemy, becomes important -those who adore God, love His children. Those who respect God, respect human beings.
Prayer should not be regarded as a sedative that alleviates life’s anxieties, this is not a Christian form of prayer. Rather, prayer makes each of us responsible, as we see in the “Our Father” that Jesus taught His disciples.
Prayer holds temple and world together
The psalter often bring out the scars of existence. Yet these prayers, even the most intimate and personal ones, were first used in the Temple, and then in the synagogues.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that the Psalms “take shape both in the liturgy of the Temple and in the human heart” (n. 2588). Thus, personal prayer is nourished "first by the prayer of the people of Israel, then by the prayer of the Church."
Even the Psalms in the first person singular, are a collective patrimony, to the point of being prayed by everyone and for everyone. The prayer of the Christian has the breath and spiritual tension of holding the temple and the world together.
Prayer, can begin in the penumbra of a church’s nave, but can come to an end on the city streets. And vice versa, it can blossom during the day’s activities and reach its fulfilment in the liturgy. Thus, the church doors let everyone’s groans in.
Hence, the world is always present in the prayer of the psalms. They assure the divine promise of salvation for the weakest, warn against the danger of worldly riches or open the horizon to God’s view of history.
Love of God and neighbour
In short, where there is God, the human person must be there as well. This is not because we love, but because He first loved us. 1 John says "if anyone claims he loves God and hates his brother, he is a liar, for if one does not love his brother whom he or she has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen."
God does not support the “atheism” of those who repudiate the divine image that is imprinted in every human being. Believing in God while distancing others and hating them, is practical atheism. It is a sacrilege, an abomination, the worst offense that can be directed toward the temple and the altar.
The Psalms prevent us from falling into the temptation of living, and perhaps also of praying, as if God does not exist, and as if the poor do not exist.