Love God and Neighbor
“One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus replied….You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mark 12:28 -31)
It’s been said that sinning is easier to do in Catholicism than in any other religion because we Catholics have so many beliefs, rules and regulations. That certainly was true when I was growing up in the 1950’s. For example, I had to get to Mass before the Gospel or I wouldn’t fulfill my “obligation,” (yes, it was an obligation back then) and I’d end up in a state of mortal sin, which, of course, I’d also do if I ate meat on Fridays. Chewing gum on the way to Mass meant I broke my pre-Communion fast so I couldn’t receive the Eucharist. I needed permission from my parish priest to attend my non-Catholic friend’s confirmation, but couldn’t participate in the ceremony. Females were required to wear hats or veils in church. Much has changed since those pre-Vatican II days, but many of the same rules and regulations still apply
What does it mean to be a good Catholic today? Some would say: go to Mass every Sunday; obey the teachings of the Pope; care about the poor; work against injustice; pray for world peace; venerate the Blessed Mother etc., etc. In an age of hyper communication, Catholics are barraged with catechisms, Creeds, papal documents, letters from local bishops, Vatican pronouncements, together with confusing interpretations of them all in the popular media, like on stem cell research, for instance.
In today’s Gospel from Mark Jesus confronts a similar situation. A scribe, a specialist in religious law, asks Jesus, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” For Jews of the first century God’s love for them was revealed in the covenant made on Mt. Sinai with Moses and, as related in the first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy, they were to reciprocate by observing “all (God’s) statutes and ordinances.” By Jesus’ time these had been codified into 613 prohibitions or commands, including, dietary laws, purity laws, rules on how to dress, how to worship and of course, the Ten Commandments.
The scribe’s question is a legitimate one to pose to a teacher of Jesus’ stature and reputation. Jesus responds by quoting from the same section of Deuteronomy: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” Citing another verse from the Torah, (the first five books of the bible), this one from the Book of Leviticus, Jesus then says that the second commandment is: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
When Leviticus was written, “neighbor” meant primarily another Israelite, but by Jesus’ time it included non-Jews as well, like Samaritans. This is a variation of Jesus’ Golden Rule, “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you,” which, in turn, is similar to a well-known saying of the great Jewish sage and contemporary of the boy Jesus, Rabbi Hillel: “What is hateful to yourself, do not do to your neighbor; this is the whole law, the rest is commentary.”
Today, “neighbor” means someone as near as your spouse, or as distant as a refugee from war torn Darfur in Africa where genocide is taking place at this very moment. History continues to show us that humanity is a continuum -- what happens in the farthest corner of the planet, like in North Korea, will eventually affect our lives. In earlier generations, we were far more isolated, and may have been able to insulate ourselves and our communities. But that is plainly no longer the case. We interact with each other at every turn, at every level; communication is instantaneous; personal standards influence universal ones, and vice versa.
We all live, after all, in the same world. Scripture teaches that if one person is in pain, we should all feel it, if one person succeeds, we should all benefit. Each of us has been given the choice to see this underlying unity or to look the other way and worry only about ourselves, even at the expense of others. Responsibility for each other is one of God’s greatest gifts to us – the gift of being active participants in the dynamic unfolding of the world’s destiny; of being co-builders with God of His kingdom on earth.
Ardis Whitman is a writer whose articles appear in magazines like the Readers’ Digest. In one of those articles she describes a moving episode from her own personal life. Her son had died a few months earlier and she was having a hard time coping with his death. One night her college-aged granddaughter and granddaughter’s boyfriend decided to try to bolster her spirits, so they invited her to go with them to a nightclub. To their delight, she accepted.
Everything went along fine. They were having a delightful time, until the band played an old favorite that reminded Ardis of her son. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she began to weep silently. At that moment the two young people did an incredibly beautiful thing. Spontaneously they both reached out and gathered the woman’s hands into their own.
There the three of them sat – their hands intertwined. It was a beautiful healing experience for the grieving mother. She felt protected in a “circle of safety,” in a “place of love.” Commenting on the experience, Ardis wrote, “It is not surprising that heaven comes down to touch us when we find ourselves safe in the heart of another person.”
Then she recalled something that the Indian poet Tagore wrote to a friend who had visited him in a time of need. He wrote: “After you had taken your leave, I found God’s footprints on my floor.”
A primary implication of the Sinai covenant is that God needs our assistance in the continuing work of creation. God, for example, can’t make a peaceful world unless we, His children, help Him by rooting out hatred from our hearts, prejudice from our minds, and injustice from our societies. God can’t create a happy home unless mothers and fathers work with Him by bringing to it a spirit of sharing, mutual respect, commitment, forgiveness and unconditional love.
God heals the sick but not without the doctor’s medicine, the surgeon’s hands, the nurse’s vigilance, and the encouragement of loved ones and friends. God brings forth bread from the earth, but not without the farmer who prepares the soil, plants the seed, harvests the crop. God helps the poor with the charity we give, cheers the lonely with the visits we make, comforts the bereaved with the words we speak, guides our children with the examples we set, and ennobles our lives with the good deeds we perform.
What’s our obligation under the Sinai covenant? Jesus sums it up in a nutshell: “Love one another as I have loved you.” He’s the model for how God wants us to live.
What does it mean to be a good Catholic today? It hasn’t changed since the first century…love God and love neighbor. The rest is commentary.
Anthony J. Sciolino
Deuteronomy 6:2-6/152
Hebrews 7:23-28
Mark 12:28b-34
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time
November 5, 2006. (Cycle B)