Scripture: Deut. 6: 2-6; Ps.17: 2-4,47,51; Heb. 7:23-28; Mk. 12:28-34
31st Sunday of the Ordinary Time
Once I had a four-hour-long interview with two script writers. They had plans to put multiple religious views together in their play. They asked me questions on various issues that were related to the Catholic faith; such as, conversion, women ordination, consanguineous marriages, the summary of the religion, etc. They asked me to summarize Christianity in one word. When I responded to them by saying ‘love’; they smiled at each other. They said to one another; every religion speaks of love. Their casual expression struck me and I began to think about the novelty that Jesus brings into his teaching on love. What is so special in Jesus? Today’s liturgy deals with this subject, the most fundamental principle of Christianity.
The Gospel narrates that one of the scribes came forward to question Jesus. Some translations will say he was an expert in mosaic law; while some say he was a lawyer, Mathew will say he was a scholar in law. It is interesting to notice in the Gospel of Mark, there were six groups of people who had already questioned Jesus before the scribe. Each of them plotted against Jesus and wanted to malign his name or make him look bad before the people, but Jesus had answered all of them with divine wisdom. They were mainly chief priests, scribes, elders (Mk. 11.27); Pharisees, Herodians (12;13), Sadducees (12:18). This scribe was the last man to question him in the series and the scriptures say that after that no one dared to question Jesus.
This scribe was not an ordinary man, for he knew the law very well. Jews had many laws; the ten commandments and then they had made six hundred and thirteen precepts of them. Now there were two schools of thought existing at the time of Jesus. One school thought that all the laws were equally important and therefore all of them have to practice and be given importance. There was another school, they believed in the hierarchy of the laws that one law was higher than the other. We need to remember that this scribe may have had some other intention to question Jesus. He may have had hatred, jealousy, aversion or hostility against Jesus. We do not know but Jesus tells him that he was not far from the kingdom of heaven. But we need to notice the hidden truth that he was not in the kingdom of heaven. He had to understand it by trusting in God’s marvellous plan in His Son Jesus who is the author of the law.
Jesus takes the first law from the book of Deuteronomy (6:4) which is the first reading today. It is a Shema prayer. It says that Israel is called to love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. This was taught to the Jews by Moses who had returned from Mt Sinai. He had made them understand that the observance of the law would bring them dignity, purpose, stature, distinction and a unique place in their lives. The Lord would grand them rewards for their obedience. Every Jew knew this and gave utmost importance to the love of God.
When Jesus gave an answer to the scribe about the love of God, it must have been the same feeling of the scribe that of the two scriptwriters who came to take my interview. It is noteworthy to realize that Jesus picks another law i.e. to love your neighbour from the book of Leviticus (19:18) on the same breath. Jesus qualifies that love of neighbour by saying ‘as yourself’.
These commandments were different from one another but Jesus clubbed them together. He brought these together. He made both loving God and loving neighbour equally important for us. There is no hierarchy in these two commandments. St. John rightly understood the teaching of Christ; he says in his first letter (4;7) if you say I love God but don’t love your neighbour then you are a liar because if you can’t love your neighbour who is seen then how can you love God who is not seen. All our charities begin from this commandment. The Catholic Church is one of the biggest organizations which is involved in charitable works.
A second important lesson in this new commandment is Jesus qualified love of your neighbour. It is said that you must love your neighbour as yourself. This is a demanding one. Who is my neighbour? Jews only knew that the fellow Jew who followed the mosaic law is their neighbour. After the episode, Jesus gives an example of ‘who is my neighbour?’ in the Gospel of Luke i.e. Good Samaritan. One of the scholars points out a beautiful insight from this reflection. While reflecting on the love your neighbour as yourself means, Jesus is telling us that self-love means no self-respect or self-esteem. When we love we should not love according to our standards but the standards that Jesus has set for us. Jesus says, love one another as I have loved you. Jesus showed his love on the cross. He died for us. This is the newness that Jesus teaches us while asking us to love God and love our neighbour.
Synod 2021-2023 is a beautiful time for us to reflect on these two commandments. We all love God but do we love our neighbours; our fellow Catholics, non-Catholics, non-baptized and all those who live in the periphery? Do we give a listening ear to them? Are they part of living? Let us make this synod a guiding force to bring the novelty into our Christians living by walking together in our pilgrimage on earth by loving our God and our neighbours.
