SUNDAY NOVEMBER 3, 2024
SUNDAY OF THE THIRTY FIRST WEEK OF THE ORDINARY TIME B.
Deuteronomy 6:2-6
Hebrew 7:23-28
Mark 12:28-34
WE ARE CREATED AND COMMISSIONED TO LOVE
The question of that Scribe to Jesus in today’s gospel is really a soul searching question meant to be asked by any right thinking serious and committed Christian. For indeed there has been so much additions to the laws, with commentaries, and all forms of prescription to the extent that the religious obligations that bind us are becoming increasingly burdensome and confusing as it was to the Jews who were bound with over six hundred precepts to be observed.
Many prophets and scribes have tried to summarize these precepts. As one author holds, “David condensed the Law into 11 statements (Ps 15), Isaiah reduced them to six (Is 33:15)
“The one who walks in justice and speaks the truth, who casts out avarice with oppression and shakes all bribes from his hands, who blocks his ears so that he may not listen to blood, and closes his eyes so that he may not see evil.”
And later isaiah reduced the law to two (Is 56:1 ) “Thus says the Lord: Preserve judgment, and accomplish justice. For my salvation is close to its arrival, and my justice is close to being revealed.”
Micah 6:8 reduced the precepts to three. “I will reveal to you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires from you, and how to act with judgment, and to love mercy, and to walk carefully with your God.”
And Habakkuk reduced them all to one: “the righteous shall live by his Faith” (Hb 2:4). The famous Jewish rabbis and even some of the Fathers of the Church like St. Augustine would also try to condense these precepts. So, it was natural for a scribe to ask Jesus to summarize the most important of the Mosaic Laws in one sentence
To the human mind, remembering all these at once was rather cumbersome and nearly impossible. So the only option left for this Scribe was to demand from Jesus the greatest and most important of all laws as it applies to God and man. And he asked Jesus. “Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Jesus uses the opportunity to sum up for us and this Scribe particularly the kennel, the core of the entire law as love of God and love of neighbour. Love is the key. And the readings of today focuses on this love.
The commandment given to the Jews in the book of Deuteronomy is the command to love God and love neighbour. On these the entire laws revolve and find it’s fulfillment. Every part of the law can only be fulfilled when the command of love is always upheld. And in the book, the people of Israel, all male born are expected as a form of creed to recite the “shema Israel” that is listen Israel as we find it in the book of Deuteronomy in today’s first reading. It states, “ Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today.” It becomes a duty to every male to recall and recite this at least once a day in order to keep in mind the necessity and importance of this law of God.
Moses explains this law to the people and added the benefits of keeping this law for it will bring them honour, prestige, dignity, purpose and status. And going further, Moses highlights the earthly benefits as “that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. “
The quality of this love expected is very much defined by the gospel of today. Apart from the injunction to love, it is even more important to relate the kind of love expected of us by God our Father. Jesus in answering this scribe goes ahead to delineate the quality, import and expectations of this love.
First that love is key to all the laws of God. And such love is towards God and ones neighbour. The love of God is one that takes every part of human person. Because it must be love with all of ones heart, soul, mind, and strength. It is love that involves every aspect of the human person. It is a consuming love. You use everything you are given as a human being to love. Heart which is the seat of emotion, soul which is the core of your being, mind which is the rationality in you and strength which is the powers that makes you perform things physically. All these must be employed in the act of loving God and neighbour. It means that love should be served by all the faculties in our human person. That all these are created to be at the service of love.
Jesus goes ahead to describe the relationship which must exist between the love given to God who is invisible, immortal, incomprehensible and the love extended to man who is visible, mortal, comprehensible and living with us. The two kinds of love go hand in hand. One cannot claim to love God without loving neighbour. Love of God presupposes love of neighbour. Each can be found in the other. To love God is to love neighbour also. One cannot do without the other, to fulfill one is to fulfill the other.
Having described in theoretical terms the demands of the concept of love, the second reading describes for us in practical terms the ingredients of love. Christ achieved the love of God and neighbour by making that one single sacrifice that atones for all the sins of the world. He suffered and died for us all. He gave his life as a ransom for us. He exchanged our lives with his. He did this out of love of God who sent him and more out of love for us who are sinner and already before now condemned. Christ redeemed us from our condemnation and rescued us from the dungeon of sin and hell.
So Jesus makes intercession on our behalf as well as fulfilled the desires of God our Father.
In this wise, we are called to emulate his love of us and exemplified his love of neighbour in our lives. And the only way to achieve this is by sacrificing ourselves, our comfort, our desires and our all for the good and well-being of others as Jesus did.
Love for our neighbor is a matter of deeds, not feelings. It means sharing with others the unmerited love and mercy that God lavishes on us. Sharing our resources, knowledge, talents and being of service to others.
In practical terms, a mother forgets herself and pays attention to her child in the care, attention, sufferings and protection extended to the child of hers. And by so doing, the mother also fulfills the demand of the love of God by loving the child. So, we have been called to do in every aspect of our lives. Love God and at the same time love our neighbour unreservedly. This is the Christian life we are called to live.
God our Father, you loved us so much that Christ died for us. Give us same love for you and our neighbours. Help us to understand the ways to love and to be able to live it out in our lives and never get tired of loving as you loved us through Christ our Lord.
Fr Norbert Uchuno
