Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B

In 1963 Pope John XXIII drafted a message to the people of God addressing the relationship between the Church and the Jewish people. It was a lament - a statement of sorrow and regret - for the Church having laid the blame for Jesus' crucifixion upon the Jewish people, and the culture of antisemitism that grew out of "the curse we falsely attached to their name." Upon his death it remained one of his unfinished works.

In 1965 Pope Paul VI took up the spirit of John's work and, with an added focus on the Church's troubled relationship with Islam, published Nostra Aetate - a Declaration on the Relation of the Church to non-Christian Religions.

The briefest of the sixteen documents of the Second Vatican Council, Nostra Aetate is remarkable in that it directly and succinctly challenged the prejudice and animosity held by many Christians, and many Christian leaders, towards Jews and Muslims.

Consider this incredibly powerful statement

"We cannot truly call on God, the Father of all, if we refuse to treat in a brotherly way any man, created as he is in the image of God." (n.5)

It then quotes the Gospel of John, that anyone that does not love, does not know God.

This was a radical statement in both John XXIII and Paul VI's time and, given what is occurring in the world, it seems just as radical today. But it shouldn't be.

In Sunday's Gospel one of the Scribes asks Jesus, which is the first of all of the commandments. He replies, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength... (and) love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than this.

This week was the 59th anniversary of Nostra Aetate. As we hear these words proclaimed in our Gospel on Sunday I pray that they may be heeded universally before we celebrate its 60th anniversary next year.

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