You shall not mistreat a stranger, nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. If you afflict them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, my wrath will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless…
Sunday 30th Ordinary Time
EXODUS 22:21-27
You shall not mistreat a stranger, nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. If you afflict them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, my wrath will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.
If you lend money to any of my people, to the poor among you, you shall not be to him as a creditor; you shall not exact interest from him. If you take your neighbor’s cloak in pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, for that is his only covering; it is his cloak for his body. In what else shall he sleep? And if he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.
The Book of Exodus shows a progression, albeit still very distant, towards the universality of the message of Salvation and the Commandment of love. It is notable, however, that the legislation of Israel was superior to that of other peoples, whom we consider more “civilized,” on the subject of the oppression of the weak: the prohibition of lending with interest, the periodic remission of debts, the Sabbath rest…
The text belongs to the “Elohist” tradition, so we can assume it has notable antiquity (perhaps written around the mid-8th century B.C.?). This makes us see that already in those remote times Israel understood much more than other peoples about God and about the human being. A God who protects the poor even against the powerful is a mentality that does not exist in any religion of the time, and it is a good example of what we call “inspiration,” that is, the presence of The Word in the writings of Israel. It is one of the lines of the Old Testament that reaches its fullness with Jesus.
The formulation of the relationship between God and men as love is also characteristic of Israel. The love of God for his people is already formulated in ancient texts, from the book of Genesis, and is expressed fully in the Theophanies of Exodus:
“The Lord, the Lord, merciful and gracious God,
slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness,
keeping his love for thousands…”
And this is an important singularity of the faith of Israel, a distant announcement of the full revelation of Jesus: God is “The Savior,” “God is Abbá,” with all the revolution of religious values that this implies and which we know well.
But the response of man to God as love is even more recent. It is not found in Genesis or Exodus. One must turn to Deuteronomy (6:5; 10:12) and to later texts. Even rarer is the expression of love for one’s neighbor. There are many “commandments” of justice, of piety… and rarely is the word love reached in reference to one’s neighbor. It is found for the first time in Leviticus 19:18, and 19:34, and is not found again until the New Testament.
1 THESSALONIANS 1:5-10
You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.
And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.
For they themselves report about us what kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
We continue reading excerpts from Paul’s letters, without much order and as always without connection to the other two texts. This fragment is nothing more than a praise by Paul to the Christians of Thessalonica, to the point of calling them “examples for all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.”
But it also serves to glimpse the system of propagation of the faith: an “apostle” (sent by a community) preaches in a city, obtains some conversions, the church that is formed is strengthened and immediately is concerned with its mission: to announce the gospel to other neighboring cities.
It is truly an accurate definition that is used for these churches: “apostolic”, that is, they felt they had an important mission: to transmit the gospel that they themselves had received. It is something essential, for all churches and for all of us who want to follow Jesus.
José Enrique Galarreta, S.J.