31st Sunday Year B – The Commanding Love of God and Neighbor – Mark

12:28-34
It should not come to us as a surprise that the response of Jesus in the Gospel of
today to the scribe’s question is not really original to Jesus. Let us recall the
scribe’s question: “Which commandment is the first of all?” In response, Jesus
says: “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and
with all your mind, and with all your strength.” So far, Jesus was only
quoting a familiar passage from the Mosaic Law. Our first reading today from
Deutronomy 6:2-6 ends with similar if not the same quotation. It says: “Hear, O
Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep
these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.” Comparing the two
quotations leaves us with the clear conviction that this must have been a well
known statement among the Jews. So, in employing it to address the question of
the scribe, Jesus simply paid homage to the common wisdom of His Jewish
people.
However, there is a deeper layer we can discern from the episode we are
considering. Thus, more than being a confirmation that Jesus is the fulfillment of
the Law, we cannot resist noticing the innovation Jesus introduces when He
brings in what He Himself calls the second commandment. Let us immediately
focus our attention to it. There Jesus continues: “The second is this, ‘You shall
love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater
than these.” But again, Jesus was not really saying anything new as such here.
He in fact simply takes what he was saying from Leviticus 19:18. In Leviticus
19:18 we read: “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the
children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself:
I am the LORD.” Some quick questions may then arise: Why is Jesus getting
people bored with what everybody knows? Why is he not really original in
inventing or in innovating? We may have to carefully look again to notice the
profound shift Jesus is calling people’s attention to.
A closer look reveals that here too, as in most cases with the parables, Jesus was
clearly expressing His originality. While we note that Jesus draws His parables
mostly from familiar stories, common experiences and existing imageries the
Jews of his time were conversant with, His originality lies in the unique twist He
brings to them, thus making these parables lessons for all times. In the episode
of today, Jesus once again makes good this His principle of originality. With a
moving intrigue which only He can achieve, He brings together two usually
separated commandments – love of God and love of neighbor. He gives them
the twist that at once turns them into the commanding love of God and
neighbor. The genius of Jesus in today’s Gospel is the emphatic revelation that
the love of God has its consequence in the love of neighbor. It just has to be that
way no matter how hard we try to deny or resist it.
Notice that for Jesus, the love of God is the first commandment. But it is not the
only commandment. There is also the second commandment, namely, the love
of neighbor. The second complements the first. And the first takes its full
meaning from the second. Through the love of neighbor, we achieve the love of
God. And this is the point the scribe who asked Jesus the question missed.
Later on in his first letter 4: 20, John borrows insight from this innovative move
Jesus makes in demonstrating that our love of God is fully expressible through
our love of neighbor. In that beautiful passage, John insists: “If anyone says, "I
love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love
his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not
seen.” Jesus’ originality therefore, shines forth in insisting that love of God and
love of neighbor are inseparably tied to each other.
Thus today, Jesus through His response in the Gospel challenges us to take up
the commanding law of love which we, by virtue of our faith, acknowledge that
we owe to God. But Jesus does not want us to stop there. He wants us to expand
the law of this love of God by making it find justification in the love of neighbor.
In effect, Jesus is demanding that we re-establish through our every action the
truth in the statement which says: Only those who concretely and
genuinely love their neighbors truly and fully love God.
Love has become so ‘commonized ’ if not ‘demonized’ among us today that
we hardly really love anymore. Selfishness is fast dictating the way we live
today that, it is beginning to be ‘normal’ not to know or care about who lives
next door. That is how far we have subtly but willfully chosen to go in not loving
our neighbor. With our attitude of indifference, we are gradually proclaiming love
a stranger in most of our communities. By making our love of neighbor be the
measure of our love of God, Jesus is clearly giving us the opportunity to be our
own judge. In effect, we need not wait for the final judgment before we begin to
recognize the need for change; beginning with how we perceive and relate with
others.
Interestingly, expressing the commanding law of love generally comes through
the most ordinary human experiences. To genuinely smile to others is love. To
speak to others tenderly is love. To happily lend a helping hand is love. To
joyfully make available our time for community services is love. To express any
gesture of kindness is love. To warmly say thank you for favors received is love.
To honestly acknowledge that we are at fault without being forced to do so is
love. These are but few examples which the invitation of Jesus today calls us to
constantly replicate wherever we are.
May the commanding love of God make us see the need to take up anew the
demand to love our neighbor.