Sermon for 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A Homily

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It is said that at the time of Jesus the rabbis could count up to 613 commandments contained in the Law: 365 were prohibitions (don’t do this!) and 248 were prescriptive (do this!).  Some of the rabbis considered all these commandments to be equally important, while others continued to debate to identify the most important commandment.  That is why the Pharisees and Sadducees had reasons to ask Jesus, “Which is the greatest commandment of the Law?” even if their intention was only to put Jesus to the test.  Apparently Jesus gives an answer that is similar to those given by some of the rabbis. For instance, there is a story about one rabbi Hillel, who lived a few years before Jesus.  A ‘pagan’ went to rabbi Hillel and challenged him, “I will believe in the value of Torah, if you can […]

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