Dear Parish Family,

Today’s First Reading from Deuteronomy (6:2-6) follows a long sequence where Moses reminds the Israelites of the commandments (the Ten Commandments) which they had undertaken to observe as the covenant people of God. Faithful observance of these commandments will be a path to life in the land they are about to enter. The actual text for today’s reading became the “Shema Israel”, the prayer that every devout Jew recites each morning on rising. The opening word, “Shema”, means “listen”; it also has the sense of “obey”. The prayer is a daily reminder not only of the covenant obligations but also of the privilege from which those obligations flow. Israel is a people addressed by God, called each day to listen and obey.

This is the wider context of the supreme commandment to love the Lord alone “with all your heart, and with all your soul and all your might”. “Love” has the sense of cleaving to God, to the exclusion of all other objects of worship. “Heart”, “soul” and “strength” refer not so much to separate capacities but together communicate a loving commitment that engages the totality of a person, including—especially from “strength” – one’s talents and capacity for action, even one’s possessions.
The corresponding command to “love one’s neighbor as yourself” also occurs in the Old Testament, in Lev 19:18. Bringing the two commandments – love of God and love of neighbor – together, as Jesus does in the episode that forms today’s Gospel (Mark 12:28-34) seems to have been something distinctive of his teaching and ministry, though Jewish parallels are not lacking from a later period.
Scribes are usually portrayed as hostile figures in the gospels. The one who approaches Jesus in this scene seems to do so as a genuine inquirer. The question he raises – which commandment of the Torah is the “first”? – was a standard item of discussion among the rabbis. The Scribes labored as factions to condense laws into nectars of Divine commands, while others expanded them to encompass every aspect of human endeavor.  This Scribe is, then, seeking the opinion of this controversial teacher on the matter.

Jesus does not reduce both commandments to a single “greatest” commandment. Though inextricably bound together, they remain “first” and “second”. This signals that God is worthy of love and worship in an absolute sense; God is to be loved for Godself alone. Love of God, though necessarily finding expression in love of neighbor, cannot simply be reduced to loving action on behalf of the neighbor.
Loving one’s neighbor “as oneself” may not, at first sight, seem all that demanding. It does not require putting the interests of the neighbor before oneself but simply putting them on an equal level. The commandment presupposes, then, a healthy love and valuing of oneself. But what it also asks is, on closer inspection, quite radical, an act of imagination in high degree: to ask myself, What do I really want from another person? – understanding, tolerance, respect, loyalty, compassion? – then to ensure that all my actions in regard to that person enact, rather than run counter to such qualities. Challenging way of life! It is also the beautiful way of life!
 

Fr. Tom Kunnel. C.O.