The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to contemplate the action we need to embrace to deepen our love as indicated by Jesus' explanation of the Great Commandment.
The Great Commandment
The reading from the Book of Tobit describes how Tobit follows Raphael’s Instructions leading to the marriage of Tobias and Sarah and routing the demon.
* [6:18] Get up to pray: prayer, combined with ritual action, drives out the demon.1
Psalm 128 describes the happy home of the faithful.
* [Psalm 128] A statement that the ever-reliable God will bless the reverent (Ps 128:1). God’s blessing is concrete: satisfaction and prosperity, a fertile spouse and abundant children (Ps 128:2–4). The perspective is that of the adult male, ordinarily the ruler and representative of the household to the community. The last verses extend the blessing to all the people for generations to come (Ps 128:5–6).2
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus declares The First Commandment.
* [12:13–34] In the ensuing conflicts (cf. also Mk 2:1–3:6) Jesus vanquishes his adversaries by his responses to their questions and reduces them to silence (Mk 12:34).* [12:28–34] See note on Mt 22:34–40.3
Barbara Dilly comments that it takes most of us, however, a long time to realize that the heavenly bliss we often feel from romantic love is not so heavenly after all. Experiencing the Kingdom of God in relationships brings a much higher level of fulfillment than romantic love, often based on lust. It takes greater commitments than just those recited in most marriage vows. It involves holding oneself to much higher standards of love at many more levels, including a more enlightened love of self. Enlightened self-love takes time to understand and to put into practice.
If done well, we develop it in God centered relationships with others. It is my prayer today that all those who are getting married and those of us who are celebrating with them will make the commitment to grow in the kind of love Jesus tells us today is what will bring us and those around us closer to each other and to God.4
Don Schwager quotes “Love God with one's whole self,” by Gregory of Nyssa, 330-395 AD.
"Human life consists in a threefold unity. We are taught similarly by the apostle in what he says to the Ephesians, praying for them that the complete grace of their 'body and soul and spirit' may be preserved at the coming of the Lord. We use the word 'body,' for the nutritive part, the word for the vital, 'soul,' and the word 'spirit' for the intellective dimension. In just this way the Lord instructs the writer of the Gospel that he should set before every commandment that love to God which is exercised with all the heart and soul and mind (Mark 12:30; Matthew 22:37; Luke 10:27). This single phrase embraces the human whole: the corporeal heart, the mind as the higher intellectual and mental nature, and the soul as their mediator." (excerpt from ON THE MAKING OF MAN 8.5.10)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Mark 12:28-34 suggests that hearing these words, the scribe could have wondered, “How could anyone love so completely?” He could have even felt tempted to walk away. But he didn’t. He saw that Jesus was expressing the heart of the Law: love of God and neighbor together constitute true worship, true obedience. He saw that this pleases God more than anything else. We can imagine his heart burning as Jesus told him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (Mark 12:33).
You are not far from the kingdom of God either. Jesus is close to you. He has all the grace you need to love God and your neighbor. He blesses even your faltering attempts to love. So how will you love the “Jesus” you meet today? “Jesus, help me to love my neighbor as an expression of my love for you.”6
Friar Jude Winkler fleshes out the involvement of Raphael in the marriage of Tobit and Sarah. Jesus cites the Shema as the Scribe attempts to trap Him with the question of the Great Commandment. Friar Jude reminds us that when we encounter the Wisdom of Jesus, questions cease.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that if evolution is the language of growth and change, then an evolving faith is one that accepts and even embraces change. While the word change normally refers to new beginnings, real transformation happens more often when something falls apart. The pain of something old cracking apart or unraveling invites us to evolve instead of tightening our controls and certitudes. Episcopal priest Stephanie Spellers is a leading thinker on change and growth in the church, and sees the current challenges of church and society as a way of God “cracking open” people for greater possibility.
Or we could acknowledge the unraveling, breaking, and cracking [Richard: what we are calling “unveiling” in this year’s meditations] as a bearer of truth and even a gift. Perhaps, as Alan Roxburgh suggested, the Holy Spirit has been nudging and calling Christians “to embrace a new imagination, but the other one had to unravel for us to see it for what it was. In this sense the malaise of our churches has been the work of God.” [2] . . . A church that has been humbled by disruption and decline may be a less arrogant and presumptuous church. It may have fewer illusions about its own power and centrality. It may become curious. It may be less willing to ally with the empires and powers that have long defined it. It may finally admit how much it needs the true power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit. That’s a church God can work with.7
Our whole self directed to love is the challenge of the First Commandment.
References
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