INTRODUCTION
The central message of today’s readings is the most fundamental principle of all religions, especially Christianity. It is to love God in Himself and living in others. Scripture readings for today remind us that we are createdto love God by loving others and to love others as an expression of our love for God. Our religious practices like prayers, Bible reading, Sacraments, acts of penance, and self-control are meant to help us to acknowledge and appreciate the presence of God in our neighbors and to express our love for God by serving our neighbors with love, sharing our blessings with them. (Fr. Anthony Kadavil).
FIRST READING : Deuteronomy 6:2-6
Moses was very much in touch with the stubbornness of the Israelites. He knew how hard-hearted they could be, such that he needed to blow aloud ‘SHEMA’ to their hearing. The ‘Shema Yisrael’ are the first two words of a section of the Torah, and it is the title of a prayer that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services. The first verse encapsulates the monotheistic essence of Judaism: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). Observant Jews consider the Shema to be the most important part of the prayer service in Judaism, and its twice-daily recitation as a ‘mitzvah’ (religious commandment). It is traditional for Jews to say the Shema as their last words, and for parents to teach their children to say it before they go to sleep at night (“Bedtime Shema”. MyJewishLearning.com).
As the mediator of God’s covenant with his people, sealed on the tablet of the Law, Moses explains the Law to the Israelites after his return from Mount Sinai. He tries to make the people reverence and obey the Law as something that will bring them dignity and purpose, status and distinction and a unique place in history. He promises them temporal rewards (“that your days may be prolonged, that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey”), if they remain loyal to Yahweh. They have to prove their loyalty to God by observing His commandments.
When God insist on the need of observing his commandments, it is not because the commandments add anything to his greatness. On the contrary, the commandments are meant for the edification of man. That is to say, they are precepts born out of God’s love for his people. Like the old Israel, the Lord announces the observance of his commandments to our hearing today. What have we been hearing, and what voice have we been obeying? Today the word of God resounds anew.The shema is meant to open our ears that have been shut against our God by sin, and to draw us back to the obedience of our God so that we may live.
SECOND READING: Hebrews 7:23-28
Some Jewish converts to Christianity missed the comforting institutions they had enjoyed in Judaism. The author of Hebrews tries to explain to them how much greater are the benefits they receive as Christians. Today’s passage compares the older religion and priesthood to Jesus and his sacrifice. The passage that Jesus, the new High Priest, is superior to the old High Priests for three reasons:
A. He doesn’t die and so doesn’t need to be replaced generation after generation. The priesthood of christ is eternal. He is the perfection of the priestly office.
B. He is sinless, so he need not offer sacrifices for his own sins. The sacrifice offered by Christ was once and for all. It is a sacrifice meant for the remission of the sins of the people for whom he has come to redeem.
C. The Jewish priests were appointed according to the Law, but Jesus is appointed by the word of God. The priesthood of Christ is born out of his being and not from any law.
GOSPEL: Mark 12:28b-34
The gospel shows Jesus as the new Moses mediating between God and the people of the New Covenant. But He expands the Law to the love of the neighbour. He gave a straightforward answer to a doctor of the Law by quoting directly from the Law itself and startling all his listeners with his profound simplicity and mastery of the law of God and its purpose. He cited the first sentence of the Jewish Shema prayer we heard in the first reading: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:4). Then He added its complementary law: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself”(Leviticus 19:18). Jesus’ contribution combined the originally separate commandments and presented them as the essence of true religion. True religion, Jesus says, is loving God and loving our fellow human beings at the same time, which means the only way a person can demonstrate real love for God is by showing genuine, active love for the neighbour. The “great commandment in the Law” is really threefold: We are commanded
1.To love God,
2.To love our neighbour, and
3.To love ourselves. We are to love God, for it is in loving Him that we are brought to the perfection of His image in us. We are to love our neighbour and ourselves as well, because both of us bear God’s image, and to honour God’s image is to honour Him who made it. We are to love our neighbour and ourselves as a way to love God: God gives us our neighbours to love so that we may learn to love Him.
The scribe was so impressed by Jesus’ grasp of the Law that he remarked: “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.” The comment by the scribe that the love of God and neighbour is “worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices,” carries special weight because he had probably come to the Temple to make his sacrifice, the usual way for the faithful of Israel to express worship and religious commitment.
LIFE MESSAGE:
The gospel reading today should spur us to ask some fundamental questions such as;
1. How do we love God?
There are several means by which we can express our love for God and gratitude to Him for His blessings, acknowledging our total dependence on Him. We must keep God’s commandments, and offer daily prayers of thanksgiving, praise, contrition, and petition. We must also read and meditate on His word in the Bible and prayerfully attend Mass and other liturgical functions. If I am going to love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, then I am going to have to place His will ahead of mine. This means that I will have to say no to some things that I might want to do. It also means that I will have to make seeking the Lord’s will, and then doing it, paramount in my life. Taken together, loving God means we open our hearts, give Him our will, develop our minds, direct our emotions, use our bodies and deploy our resources in ways that reveal our love for Him in active, loving service of Him in Himself and Him in everyone we encounter.
2. How do we love our neighbour?:
Since every human being is the child of God and the dwelling place of the Spirit of God, we are actually giving expression to our love of God by loving our neighbor as Jesus loves him and us. This means we have to help, support, encourage, forgive, and pray for everyone without discrimination based on color, race, gender, age wealth or social status. If I am going to love my neighbor as I love myself, it will cost me as well! I may have to seek forgiveness when I think I have done no wrong. I may have to sacrifice something I think I need to meet a brother’s need. I may have to give up time to help someone. I may have to spend time in prayer for people, go to them, and reach out to them in the name of the Lord.
3. How to live the commandment of love everyday is through self examination: Is my love for God all that it should be? Do I pray to Him as I should? Am I in His Word as I should be? Are there people or things that have crept in and taken over first place in my life? Is Jesus somewhere down the line after some person, some thing, or even myself? What about my love for others? Is it all it could be? How loving am I to the members of my family, to my neighbors, to the members of my parish community? The answer to all these questions will help us to measure the degree of our love of God. (Fr. Anthony Kadavil).
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, You have always loved us as your sons and daughters with so much love beyond telling. We have not always loved You. Our words, our thoughts and our actions, betray the love You have for us. Help us today and always to walk on the path of love for You and for our brothers and sisters, so that we may come at last to your kingdom, Who live and reign forever and ever. Amen.
PAX VOBIS!
