31st Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B
Mark 12: 28-34
Deuteronomy 6:2-6; Hebrews 7:23-28; Mark 12:28b-34
Love the Lord your God
Raniero Cantalamessa
One day one of the scribes came to Jesus asking him which was the first commandment of the law and Jesus answered, citing the words of the law: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God. And you shall love the Lord your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind, and with your whole strength.” But Jesus immediately added that there is a second commandment similar to this, and it is to “love your neighbor as yourself.”
If we are to understand the meaning of the scribe’s question and Jesus’ response, we need to bear in mind the following. In the Judaism of Jesus’ time there were two opposite tendencies.
On the one hand there was a tendency to endlessly multiply the commandments and precepts of the law, creating norms and obligations for every minimal detail of life. On the other hand there was the desire to look underneath this suffocating congeries of norms to find those things that really count for God, the spirit of all the commandments.
The scribe’s question and Jesus’ response are situated in this approach to the essentials of the law, in this desire not to get lost in the thousand other secondary precepts. It is precisely this lesson about method that above all we must learn from today’s gospel. There are things in life that are important but not urgent (in the sense that nothing will happen if we let them slide); and vice versa, there are things that are urgent but not important. The danger is that we will systematically sacrifice the important things to pursue those that are urgent but often secondary.
How do we avoid this danger? A story will help us understand how. One day an old professor was asked to speak as an expert to some large North American corporations on personal time management. He decided to try an experiment. Standing before a group ready to take notes, he pulled out from under the table a large, empty glass vase. He placed a dozen tennis-ball-size rocks in the vase until it was full. When he was not able to add more rocks he asked those present: “Does the vase seem full to you?” and they all answered “Yes!” He waited a moment and then asked: “Are you sure?”
He again bent down and pulled a box full of pebbles from under the table and carefully poured the pebbles into the vase, moving the vase a little so that the pebbles could reach the rocks at the very bottom. He asked: “Is the vase full this time?”
His audience, having become more prudent, began to understand and said: “Perhaps not yet.” “Very good!” the old professor replied. Again he bent down and this time picked up a bag of sand and poured it into the vase with care. The sand filled all the spaces between the rocks and the pebbles.
He then asked again: “Is the vase full now?” And they all answered without hesitation: “No!” “Indeed,” the old professor said and, as they expected, took the pitcher of water from the table and poured it into the vase up to the brim.
At this point he looked up at his audience and asked: “What great truth does this experiment show us?” The bravest of the group, reflecting on the theme of the course — time management — replied: “This shows us that even when our schedule is full, with a little effort we can always add some other task, some other thing to do.”
“No,” the professor answered, “It’s not that. The experiment shows us something else. If you don’t put the big rocks in the vase first, then you will never be able to put them in afterward.”
There was a moment of silence and everyone took in the evidence for this affirmation.
The professor continued: “What are the big rocks, the priorities, in your life? Health? Family? Friends? Defending a cause? Accomplishing something that is close to your heart?
“The important thing is to put these big rocks on your agenda first. If you give priority to a thousand other little things — the pebbles, the sand — your life will be filled with meaninglessness and you will never find time to dedicate yourself to the truly important things.
“So, never forget to pose this question to yourself: ‘What are the important things in my life?’ Put these things at the head of your agenda.”
Then, with a friendly gesture the old professor bid farewell to his audience and left the room.
To the “big rocks” mentioned by the professor — health, family, friends — we need to add two others, which are the biggest of all, the two greatest commandments: love God and your neighbor.
Truly, loving God, more than a commandment, is a privilege, a concession. If one day we find him, we will not cease to thank God for commanding us to love him and we will not desire to do anything else but cultivate this love.
CAN ONE COMMAND THE HEART?
Fernando Armellini
Pharaoh was the beloved of the god Ra. From the earliest times, the god Ra motivated his interventions in favor of the ruler with the formula: ‘For the love, I have for you.’
The God of Israel did not know this sweet and delicate feeling. In the earliest texts of the Bible, only strong passions are attributed to him: he repents, he is indignant, he grieves (Gen 6:6-7), he cultivates the proud loyalty of the feudal lord towards his vassal, but not love, which is why we understand that, in terror, Israel begged Moses: “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we shall die” (Ex 20:19).
God contemplated creation and ‘saw that it was good,’ but there is no allusion to his emotion of joy; his covenants with Noah and Abraham are referred to, but one would look in vain in the sacred text for a reason for his choice the inscription ‘because he loved them.’The Lord hears the lament of his oppressed people in Egypt, he remembers his covenant, looks at it, thinks about it (Ex 2:23-25), but here too, there is no mention of love. Israel was reluctant to attribute the verb’ aheb,’ to love, to the Lord because of its erotic overtones.
Hosea introduced the image of conjugal affection, and after him, no expression of this love, not even the boldest, was overlooked. It served to express the affections, the emotions, the tenderness of God toward people. His love for the patriarchs was discovered (Deut 4:37), Abraham was recognized as “his friend” (Is 41:8), the visceral affection of a father was attributed to him (Ps 103:13) and the oath: “Though the mountains fallaway and the hills be shaken, my love shall never fall away from you” (Is 54:10).
Only after realizing this perennial and gratuitous love did Israel feel the need to correspond to it and understand that a God who loves in this way, without conditions, has the right to command even the heart and to demand even what humanly seems impossible: “If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat, if thirsty, give something to drink”(Prov 25:21).
Gospel: Mark 12:28-34
The conclusion of this passage is a bit enigmatic. Why doesn’t Jesus invite the scribe to follow him? Why does he not suggest the next step to enter the kingdom of God? He immediately pointed out to the rich man what he still lacked: “Go—he said—sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me”(Mk 10:21).
Let us leave these questions unanswered for a moment and begin to frame the episode to grasp its message. For three days, Jesus has been in Jerusalem. He has driven the sellers out of the holy place (Mk 11:15-18), a gesture that has made his conflict with religious authority irremediable. The high priests, the scribes, and the elders are studying how to frame him: they ask him captious questions, weighing his every word to find some pretext to accuse him and remove him from the way. While wandering about in the temple, they approach him and ask him a series of religious and political questions. Jesus answers them all, calmly and with great skill, to the point that his adversaries are amazed and admired (Mk 11-12).
Today’s gospel is set in this polemical context. A scribe who has witnessed the previous controversies comes forward and also asks a question, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Unlike his colleagues before him, he is not moved by malice against Jesus, nor does he intend to test him; he has heard good things about him and wishes to verify his biblical preparation.
Studying the sacred Scriptures, the rabbis had derived 613 commandments. They had distinguished them into negative precepts (which indicated actions to avoid, and which were 365 like the days of the year) and positive precepts (which imposed measures to perform, and which were 248 like the limbs of the human body). Some of these precepts were judged light, others serious, but the obligation to observe them was equally strict. Women were exempt from the 248 positives, but even for them, there were still many, too many. It was debated whether it was possible to summarize them, to reduce them to the essential. Some rabbis did not even want to hear about such a proposal. It is said that Rabbi Shammai one day clubbed a pagan who, in a hurry to become a Jew, had asked him for a summary of God’s law. Other rabbis, however, were more reasonable; they considered the fact that the poor of the earth would never have been able, I won’t say to observe, but even only to learn so many precepts.
Many teachers maintained that the most important of the commandments was the observance of the Sabbath; others believed that the main one was the one that imposed not to have other gods; the opinion of Rabbi Hillel was famous: ‘What you do not desire for yourself, do not do to your neighbor; this is the whole law, the rest is only commentary.’Rabbi Akiba taught, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself; this is the great principle of the law,’and Rabbi Simon, called the righteous, stated, ‘The world rests on three things: the law, worship, and works of love.’
What was Jesus’ position on this much-debated topic? He gave the impression of being very understanding towards sinners and their weaknesses; he was not intransigent like rabbi Shammai; therefore, he must have favored a synthesis. At other times, he had taken sides against the ‘wise men’ who complicated the lives of simple people, placing on their shoulders the unbearable yoke of detailed prescriptions, of the innumerable practices imposed by the tradition of the ancients.
The answer he gives to the scribe takes up the best known of the prayers of his people: “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.” Then, without being asked, he adds a second commandment, taken from the book of Leviticus: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18).
As we learned from the first reading, God is to be loved with heart, soul, and strength (Deut 6:4). But for Jesus, this is not enough: to these three faculties, he also adds the whole mind. If adherence to God is to be solid and unshakeable, it cannot be founded on fleeting religious emotions or made to depend on some pious devotion. It must involve the mind; it must be the fruit of a conscious and well-considered choice, which also fully satisfies reason.
Anyone who does not devote time to the study of God’s word, who is uninterested in theological themes and ecclesial problems, who is incapable of giving the reasons for his faith, cannot claim to love God with all his mind.
Love of God is then juxtaposed by Jesus with the love of people, to the point of making the two commandments inseparable. Even if it is not always easy to establish what is convenient to do, it is pretty clear what love of neighbor consists of: it is the willingness always to do what is good for the other. However, it is not entirely clear what it means to love God and what the relationship between the two commandments is.
Love of neighbor requires a commitment to ensure that no one lacks food, clothing, assistance, education, and all that is necessary for life. However, this commitment must not overshadow one’s duties towards God: prayer, Sunday Mass, and religious practices. Therefore, a part of our time should be dedicated to working, family, and friends, but woe betide if we rob God of his due share. This interpretation, quite widespread, is not satisfactory and is dangerous. Understood in this way, the two commandments oppose each other and put God and neighbor in competition because what is given to one is taken away from the other, and no one can ever be fully satisfied.
We note that only in Mark’s gospel are the two commandments placed in hierarchical order; it is stated that there is a first precept, clearly more important, and a second. Matthew relates Jesus’ response to the rabbi in a more nuanced way: “The second is similar to the first” (Mt 22:39); therefore, it is not inferior, as seemed to result from Mark’sversion. In Luke, there is an additional passage; there is no mention of a first and a second, but only one commandment: “Love the Lord your God… and your neighbor as yourself”(Lk 10:27).
Throughout the rest of the New Testament, there is no mention of two commandments that summarize the entire law, but only one, and that is love for man.
In John’s Gospel, Jesus declares: “This I command you: love one another” (John 15:17), and Paul affirms that whoever loves his neighbor has fulfilled the whole law, “for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,’ and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this saying, namely ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself'” (Rom 13:8-9). Writing to the Galatians, he is even more explicit: “The whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself'” (Gal 5:14).
The two commandments cannot, therefore, be separated, because they are the manifestation of a single love, as John affirms: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 Jn 4:20).
To love God does not mean to give him something (time, prayers, songs…), but to share his project in favor of man, to accept his love and pour it out on others. Can there be a danger of loving man without loving God? Such an eventuality is so impossible that the Bible does not even consider it. If one loves man, he is undoubtedly animated by the Spirit because love can only come from God (1 Jn 4:7).
It now remains to clarify who Jesus means by neighbor. Already in the book of Leviticus, among the people to be loved, the stranger is included: “You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself” (Lev 19:34) and several rabbis, referring to the passage in Genesis where it is emphasized that God created man in His likeness (Gen 5:1), claimed that the term neighbor included all people. Generally, however, the commandment referred only to the people of Israel or, at most, to those who resided within the borders of the Holy Land.
Jesus put an end to all discrimination and declared without hesitation and in an unequivocal way: neighbor is anyone in need, whether friend or enemy (Mt 5:43-48). In his response (vv. 32-33), the scribe, echoing Jesus’ statement, introduces the comparison between the practice of these two commandments and the worship offered in the temple.
He has no difficulty pronouncing his judgment because, like a good rabbi, he has studied the writings and assimilated the thought of the prophets and sages of Israel. He knows that “Practicing justice and equity is worth more to the Lord than a sacrifice” (Prov 21:3); he remembers the psalmist’s exclamation, “Sacrifice and offering you do not want. Holocaust and sin-offering you do not request; I delight to do your will, my God; your law is in my inner being!” (Ps 40:7.9). He has no doubt: love is immensely more precious and pleasing to God than any offering.
Jesus, who was quoting the prophet Hosea repeatedly invited the Pharisees: “Go and learn what this means: I want works of love, not sacrifices” (Mt 9:13), cannot but be pleased with the spiritual sensitivity of his interlocutor, and for this reason he adds: “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (v. 34).
At this point, we can resume the questions we asked at the beginning: why did Jesus not immediately indicate to the scribe what he still lacked to enter the kingdom of God? Why did he not invite him to follow him? The reason must be sought in the theological perspective of Mark, who structured his gospel as a journey of Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem. Now the Master has reached his destination; he is no longer on the road. Those who have followed him, those who have seen his works, listened to his words and understood his message, those who have had their eyes opened and, like the blind Bartimaeus, have joined the disciples along the way, are finally able to choose the gift of life together with him.
The others—the wise rabbi of today’s gospel, the pious, Law-abiding Israelites, and all good and honest people—are only near the kingdom of God. To enter it, they must approach Christ, study his message in depth, evaluate his proposal and give him their conscious and resolute adherence. To arrive at this choice, they must first travel with him on the road from Galilee to Jerusalem.
Reading Mark’s Gospel is equivalent to making this journey. It may be that having reached the last page, one does not yet dare to offer one’s life with Jesus. It may be that we are not yet fully convinced that his proposal is the right one. There is no need to be discouraged because of this; one must resume the journey with him, starting again from Galilee. One day, like the blind man of Bethsaida, Jesus will finally be able to open everyone’s eyes.
“To ruminate” the Word of God
Pope Francis
In today’s liturgy, the Gospel presents a scribe who approaches Jesus and asks him: “Which commandment is the first of all?” (Mk 12:28). Jesus responds by citing Scripture and stating that the first commandment is to love God; from this one then derives the second, as a natural consequence: to love one’s neighbour as oneself (cf. vv. 29-31). Hearing this response, the scribe not only recognises that he is right, but in doing so, in recognising that he is right, he repeats the same words Jesus had said: “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that… to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbour as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices” (vv. 32-33).
We can ask ourselves, in giving his assent, why did that scribe feel the need to repeat Jesus’ same words? This repetition seems to be more surprising if we think that this is the Gospel of Mark, who has a very concise style. So, what could this repetition mean? This repetition is a teaching for all of us who are listening. For the Word of the Lord cannot be received as any other type of news. The Word of the Lord should be repeated, made one’s own, safeguarded. The monastic tradition of the monks, uses an audacious but very concrete term. It goes like this: the Word of God must be “ruminated”. “To ruminate” the Word of God. We could say that it is so nutritious that it must reach every aspect of life: to involve, as Jesus says today, the entire heart, the entire soul, the entire mind, all of our strength (cf. v. 30). The Word of the Lord must resound, echo and re-echo within us. When there is this interior echo that repeats itself, it means that the Lord dwells in the heart. And he says to us, just as he did to that good scribe in the Gospel: “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (v. 34).
Dear brothers and sisters, the Lord does not seek skilled commentators of the Scriptures, as much as he seeks docile hearts that, welcoming his Word, allow themselves to be changed within. This is why it is so important to be familiar with the Gospel, to always have it at hand — even a small-sized Gospel in our pockets, in our purses to read and reread, to be passionate about it. When we do this, Jesus, the Word of the Father, enters into our hearts, he becomes intimate with us and we bear fruit in Him. Let us take for example today’s Gospel: it is not enough to read it and understand that we should love God and our neighbour. It is necessary that this commandment, which is the “great commandment”, resound in us, that it be assimilated, that it become the voice of our conscience. This way, it does not remain a dead letter, in the drawer of the heart, because the Holy Spirit makes the seed of that Word germinate in us. And the Word of God works, it is always in motion, it is living and active (cf. Heb 4:12). So each one of us can become a living, different and original “translation”, not a repetition but a living, different and original “translation” of the one Word of love that God gives us. This is what we see in the lives of the Saints for example. None of them is the same as another. They are all different, but with the same Word of God.
Today, therefore, let us take the example of this scribe. Let us repeat Jesus’ words, making them resound in us: “To love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength and my neighbour as myself”. And let us ask ourselves: does this commandment truly orient my life? Does this commandment resonate in my daily life? It would be good this evening, before going to sleep, to make an examination of conscience on this Word, to see if we have loved the Lord today and if we have done a little good to those we happened to meet. May every encounter bring about a little bit of good, a little bit of love that comes from this Word. May the Virgin Mary, in whom the Word of God was made flesh, teach us to welcome the living word of the Gospel in our hearts.
Angelus, 31/10/2021
