Today is the feast day of Peru’s San Martín de Porres, the illegitimate child of Anna Valezquez, a former slave Afro-Panamanian woman and a Spanish nobleman who abandoned the family after Martín’s younger sister was born. Martin is the first person of African descent in America to be declared a saint.

While Martín is said to have miraculous bilocarial powers, the ability to communicate with animals and heal himself, service was his specialty. Once he met a grieving beggar and brought him to his own bed in the monastery. When the superior reprimanded him for letting a dirty and contagious stranger into the convent, Martín replied that he could easily wash the sheets, but not the guilt of ignoring the poor. Disregarding the difference between his brother’s rank and that of his superior, Martín replied, “Compassion, dear brother, is preferable to cleanliness.” Martín could be a good interpreter of today’s Liturgy of the Word.

In our reading from Deuteronomy, we hear one of many interpretations of Moses instructing the people about God’s law. Although there are more than 630 mitzvot (commandments) in the law, Moses summarized them with the “Shema,” the prayer/creed we hear today that begins with “Hear, O Israel!” This creed reminds all who proclaim it that when they put their whole heart into loving God, their primary desire will be to act in God’s name in all times and circumstances. Today’s Gospel makes this more concrete.

One day some Pharisees and Sadducees were discussing with Jesus about taxes and the circumstances under which a man could get rid of his wife. An unnamed scribe (an official with the legal power to transcribe and promulgate scriptural and legal documents) came to Jesus asking him about the greatest of all commandments. As a scribe, he knew the law better than most. Was he sincere? Are we testing Jesus? Trying to make a point in front of a crowd? Who knows? Regardless, Jesus improvised Moses’ teaching. He recited the Shema and interpreted it, stating that love of neighbor is so much like love of God that they are inseparable and sum up every dimension of a God-fearing life.

By agreeing with Jesus, the scribe took Jesus’ side in the earlier debates. Unlike the Pharisees, who tried to protect believers from any appearance of mixing with foreigners, including paying taxes (Mark 12:14-17), the scribe agreed that love is the only basic commandment. Unlike the Sadducees, members of the upper class who oversaw the temple sacrifice, he agreed that love eclipsed any kind of sacrifice or ritual. By implication, the scribe who had the responsibility of writing divorce decrees also stood with Jesus in this matter of the mutual responsibility of husbands and wives (Mark 12:18-27). In a rather ironic exchange, the scribe complimented Jesus on his interpretation of the Law and Jesus asserted that the scribe was not far from God’s reign.

Moses, the scribe, and Jesus shed light on today’s selection from Hebrews. Author, probably Paul’s colleague Priscillait points to Christ as the supreme and final priest and sacrifice. Jesus’ sacrifice? Giving Himself to mankind and remaining forever as the way through which mankind meets God.

St. Martin, porter, barber-surgeon, healer and friend of the poor. he was never ordained. He was a brother whose life preached in a way that few others have—or could even wish to do. He understood that loving God involves loving everyone and everything that God loves. He understood that the love of Christ implies self-giving for the beloved of God. He angered more than one of his brethren and contemporaries with his freedom to set the law of love above all religious practice and restriction. He set a frightening example because, like Jesus, he went where the Spirit led him rather than limiting himself to “how it should be done.” He made the word of God real and effective as a double-edged sword. (Hebrews 4:12)

What could St. Martín tell us today about the love of God and neighbor?

If it were written in English, it might tell us to capitalize the word Neighbor, recognizing that we encounter God’s love, need, and prophecy in others. He might remind us that in our haste to accomplish an important work or to be respectable, we may lose sight of the fact that compassion is far more important than accomplishing or obeying the law—whatever the goal.

Although Martín would never say it, he was an icon of Christ, a living and loving embodiment of all that it means to be the body of Christ. As we approach the US election, he would encourage us to ignore our reputations and fears as we devote all our heart, soul and strength to the love of God and neighbor.