Thirty-first
Sunday in Ordinary Time
Deut
6:2-6
So that you and your son and your grandson may fear the LORD,
your God, and keep, throughout the days of your lives,
all his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you,
and thus have long life.
Hear
then,
that you may grow and prosper the more,
in keeping with the promise of the LORD,
the God of your fathers,
to give you a land flowing with milk and honey.
Hear,
O
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.
Reading II
Heb
7:24-28
Those priests were many
because they were prevented by death
from remaining in office, but he,
because he remains forever,
has a priesthood that does not pass away.
Therefore, he is always able to save those who approach God through him,
since he lives forever to make intercession for them.
It was fitting that we should have such a high priest:
holy, innocent, undefiled,
separated from sinners,
higher than the heavens.
He has no need, as did the high priests,
to offer sacrifice day after day,
first for his own sins and then for those of the people;
he did that once for all when he offered himself.
For the law appoints men
subject to weakness to be high priests,
but the word of the oath,
which was taken after the law, appoints a son,
who has been made perfect forever.
Gospel
Mk
12:28-34
One of the scribes, when he came forward
and heard them disputing and saw how well he had answered them,
asked him, "Which is the first of all the commandments?"
Jesus replied,
"The first is this: 'Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.'
The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'
There is no other commandment greater than these."
The scribe said to him,
"Well said, teacher. You are right in saying,
'He is One and there is no other than he.'
And 'to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself'
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
And when Jesus saw that (he) answered with understanding,
he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Today’s First Reading became the principal Jewish confession of Faith. The call to hear, “Shema”, is a command to love Yahweh alone. This call is found elsewhere in Deuteronomy (5:1; 9:1; 20:3; 27:9), and in the sapiential (wisdom) books. Because the Israelites are preparing to enter a very prosperous land, Moses warns them not to assume that the land’s prosperity was due to the worship of other gods by the indigenous people. While these verses underscore the loyalty that Israel must have to the Lord, it is not an affirmation of monotheism. The belief in other gods is implied. However, all of Israel’s acts, worship, and life itself must be directed to the service of Yahweh alone.
The love of God envisioned in these passages carries the political connotation of covenant fidelity. It is virtually synonymous with the obedience found in a parent/child relationship, in which love and obedience are equal terms. Israel owes God all of its love and in fact the entire book of Deuteronomy is based on the implications of these verses. Even Jesus, when asked which was the greatest commandment of the law, cites this verse (Matt 22:36-37; Mark 12:28-30). Eventually, Judaism would turn these metaphors into commands and also begin the custom of wearing phylacteries (tĕfillîn) which were small leather pouches containing these texts and worn on the forehead and left forearm. The mĕzűzâ or doorpost, (a container with these texts affixed to the right-hand doorpost of a house) was also born from these metaphors. Jesus would eventually criticize these practices because they were “empty” of their true meaning.
In the Second Reading, the author continues to contrast the superior and eternal priesthood of Christ with that of the priests where Jesus is “likened” to Melchizedek, a shadowy figure found in Genesis 14, who was said to have met Abraham after his altercation with the four kings. However, because Melchizedek’s birth, death, origins and ancestry remain a mystery, rabbinic tradition concluded he was eternal.
Jesus’ intercession has been interpreted by many as a continuation of his sacrifice on the cross, and not as an integral part of it. This is due to the view that Jesus’ death on the cross is an event of the past. However, the comparison that is made between Jesus’ sacrifice and the sacrifice offered by the high priest on the Day of Atonement suggests that Jesus’ sacrifice cannot be thought of as limited to his death, but rather his exaltation is an essential part of the sacrifice. Because of this, Jesus’ sacrifice cannot be considered just a historical event, since its culmination takes place in heaven where time as we know it is transcended. S. Lyonnet (Biblica 40 [1959] 855-90) has shown that in late Judaism expiatory sacrifice was regarded as intercession. Based on this assumption, if that is what the author of Hebrews had in mind in these verses, then the Jesus sacrifice is an eternal one present in heaven.
Today’s Gospel Reading is the fourth in a series of controversies which answers the question what is the “greatest commandment” from among the 613 precepts of the Old Testament Law. This was a common question posed to distinguished Jewish teachers. With his answer, Jesus combines two commandments from the OT:
1. The first quote is the Shema taken from Deuteronomy 6:4-5. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one”
2.
The second comes from Leviticus 19:18. “You shall love
your neighbor as yourself”.
The Shema is the first of three texts which are recited daily by pious Jews. This command to love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength does not refer to the various parts of the person but is a way of stressing that the whole person should love God. When Jesus adds the second commandment and unites it to the first, he makes an unprecedented theological move. Unlike the previous controversies, the scribe in today’s story agrees with Jesus and paraphrases the statement without any sign of hostility. The scribe goes on to assert that love of God and neighbor are the great principles that underlie the entire sacrificial system.
Better understanding the mystery of love is essential for everyone who has taken to heart the Gospel of our Lord, for love is the reason why Jesus humbled himself and incarnated, taking upon himself our own broken humanity, that we might enter the Glory of the Kingdom He so fervently proclaimed. Without love, living the Gospel that Jesus preached and died for is impossible. But how do we love someone who willfully does harm or commits an injustice against us, or in any way hurts us deeply? In order to answer these questions it’s essential that we gain a better understanding of what Jesus actually meant when made this statement.
First of all, who is my neighbor? Is it the person who borrows sugar or asks me to watch over their house while they're out on vacation? Certainly that's a neighbor. But neighbor is also anyone who is in need, and anyone with whom our lives come in contact with - ANYONE! And this includes people we don't like, even those who we consider to be outcasts, undesirable, or even our enemy. If then these must be considered our neighbor then we too must be seen as someone’s neighbor. The question, then should not be who is my neighbor? But rather how am I someone else's neighbor? We need to become sensitive to the way others see us. Do others see us as a neighbor or as an enemy? Do we see ourselves the same way as others see us? How do others Love us or hate us? And, do we love or hate ourselves in the same way? Only after meditating on this, can we begin to understand the mystery of love thy neighbor.
So, how do I love myself? Do I love myself always or only at certain moments? Do I love myself when I do something wrong or embarrassing, or when I steal, or lie, or destroy my neighbor's reputation? On the other hand, do I not love myself when I visit the sick, feed the hungry, clothe the naked or comfort the afflicted? This same love we want for ourselves we must want and have for everyone and nothing can take the place of the love we must have for others: If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing (1 Cor 13:1-3). Love is patient, tolerant and benevolent. It must go beyond the mere circle of our friends and family - not only to those who we consider "good" but even to those we consider foolish, boring, mean, envious, riffraff, etc. To accomplish this requires a love that can see beyond what our eyes see - a love that sees in every person an immortal soul that is more precious to our Lord than all the universe.
New American Bible; Brown, R. K., and Comfort, P. W. (trans.) and Douglas, J. D., (ed.) “The New Greek-English Interlinear New Testament”; United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; North, M., “The Deuteronomistic History”; Weinfeld, M., “Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School”; Attridge, H. W., "Hebrews"; Bruce, F. F., "The Epistle to the Hebrews"; Kingsbury, J. D., “The Christology of Mark’s Gospel”; Schweizer, E., “The Good News According to Mark”; Tuckett, C. (ed.), “The Messianic Secret”; “The Collegeville Bible Commentary”; Brown, Raymond E., S.S., “Introduction to the New Testament”; Brown, Fitzmyer, and Murphy (ed.) “The New Jerome Biblical Commentary”.
Mishna - Yoma (Kippurim)
Deacon Lazaro J. Ulloa