The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today connect us to the ancient commandment of Love in the Hebrew Testament and invite us to contemplate our action today to practice love of God and neighbour.
Practice Love
The reading from the Book of Deuteronomy declares The Great Commandment.
* [6:4] Hear, O Israel!: in Hebrew, shema yisra’el; hence this passage (vv. 4–9), containing the Great Commandment, is called the Shema. In later Jewish tradition, 11:13–21 and Nm 15:37–41 were added to form a prayer recited every evening and morning. The LORD is our God, the LORD alone: other possible translations are “the Lord our God is one Lord”; “the Lord our God, the Lord is one”; “the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.”1
Psalm 18 is a royal thanksgiving for victory.
* [Psalm 18] A royal thanksgiving for a military victory, duplicated in 2 Sm 22. Thanksgiving Psalms are in essence reports of divine rescue. The Psalm has two parallel reports of rescue, the first told from a heavenly perspective (Ps 18:5–20), and the second from an earthly perspective (Ps 18:36–46). The first report adapts old mythic language of a cosmic battle between sea and rainstorm in order to depict God’s rescue of the Israelite king from his enemies. Each report has a short hymnic introduction (Ps 18:2–4, 32–36) and conclusion (Ps 18:21–31, 47–50).2
The reading from the Letter to the Hebrews shares that the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.
* [7:26–28] Jesus is precisely the high priest whom the human race requires, holy and sinless, installed far above humanity (Heb 7:26); one having no need to offer sacrifice daily for sins but making a single offering of himself (Heb 7:27) once for all. The law could only appoint high priests with human limitations, but the fulfillment of God’s oath regarding the priesthood of Melchizedek (Ps 110:4) makes the Son of God the perfect priest forever (Heb 7:28).3
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus discusses the First Commandment with a scribe.
* [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). * [12:13–17] See note on Mt 22:15–22. * [12:18–27] See note on Mt 22:23–33. * [12:28–34] See note on Mt 22:34–40.4
Tamora Whitney comments that we are encouraged to love God and keep his commandments. Jesus is asked which commandments are the most important. He says the first thing is to love God completely. This is old news, but it’s important to keep hearing it. We’re told throughout the scriptures that loving God is the most important thing to do, and it’s reiterated again and again. Jesus reminds us here that it’s the first commandment and the most important. And what’s the second? To love our neighbor like we love ourselves.
Now here’s the question: Who’s our neighbor? Actually everyone. Everyone is made in God’s image. Everyone should love God (like God loves everyone) and everyone should love each other. If that happens, everything else will fall into place. If everyone loved God and everyone else, there would be no need for any further commandments. You don’t steal from people you love. You don’t cheat on people you love. You don’t kill people you love. You love them. If we love God, and if we love all God’s people in the image of God, we don’t need anything else.5
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)6
The Word Among Us Meditation on Mark 12:28-34 that there are many times when we don’t feel particularly loving. But as Jesus showed us, love is more than an emotion; it’s a series of actions and decisions that reflect God’s will. When we make our relationship with our Father the focus of our lives, he will give us the grace to love, even when our emotions don’t fall in line.
So how do you love your heavenly Father? Spend time in prayer and Scripture each day. Seek his grace and mercy in the sacraments. Try to fulfill the unique mission you believe God has given you. And how do you love your neighbor? Care for the people God has put in your life. Build up rather than tear down. Forgive those who have hurt you. Tell people about Jesus. Today, think about all the opportunities you will have to love God and your neighbor. Then go ahead and do these things. Don’t worry if you don’t “feel the love.” What matters is that you are obeying the two most important commandments—and reflecting God’s love into the world. “Jesus, show me how to love today.”7
Friar Jude Winkler comments that God is offering the Israelites two ways, life in obeying the “Shema” and death from rejecting God. The Hebrew sense of perfect is expressed in ordination as a priest. Friar Jude shares that in Mark, our conscience (mind) is also to be clear as we serve the Lord.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that what has been lacking is the virtue of justice. Justice and charity are complementary but clearly inseparable in teachings of Doctors of the Church, as well as the social encyclical letters of almost all popes over the last century. The giving and caring spirit of charity both motivates and completes our sense of justice, but the virtue of charity cannot legitimately substitute for justice. Persons capable of doing justice are not justified in preferring to “do charity.” Although this has clearly been taught on paper, he would say it is the great missing link in the practical preaching and lifestyle of the church. We have ignored the foundational obligation of justice in our works of charity! For centuries we have been content to patch up holes temporarily (making ourselves feel benevolent) while in fact maintaining the institutional structures that created the holes (disempowering people on the margins). Now it has caught up with us in unremitting poverty, massive income disparity, cultural alienation, and human and environmental abuse.
Jesus preaches a social order in which true charity is possible, a way of relating by which cooperation and community make sense. Jesus offers a world where all share the Spirit’s power “each according to their gift.” And that “Spirit is given to each person for the sake of the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7). That is the key to Christian community and Christian social justice. It is not a vision of totalitarian equality, nor is it capitalist competition (“domination of the fittest”). It is a world in which cooperation, community, compassion, and the charity of Christ are paramount—and to which all other things are subservient. The “common good” is the first principle of Catholic social doctrine—although few Catholics know it.8
Our interpretation of the Great Commandment is aided by the Holy Spirit to call us to greater fullness of life as we offer ourselves to serve others in our Baptismal priesthood.
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