LECTIONARY READINGS
First reading: Deuteronomy 6:2-6
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 17(18):2-4, 47, 51.
Second reading: Hebrews 7:23-28
Gospel: Mark 12:28-34.
Link to readings
COMMENTARY
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’, 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.
[The Pontifical Biblical Commission in its 1993 document, The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church, picked up this motif, describing the local Christian community as one ‘which knows that it is addressed by God (cf. John 6:45), a community that listens eagerly to the Word with faith, love and docility (Deut 6:4-6)’ (III, B, 3).]
LOVE THE LORD ALONE
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, perhaps even one’s possessions.
The corresponding command to ‘love one’s neighbour as yourself’ also occurs in the Old Testament, in Lev 19:18. Bringing the two commandments – love of God and love of neighbour – 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 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. He is, then, seeking the opinion of this controversial teacher on the matter.
A ‘SECOND’ COMMANDMENT
Jesus initially responds in fairly conventional terms. He points to the commandment preserved in the Shema, citing Deut 6:5, with the additional phrase ‘with all one’s mind’. But he then goes on beyond what the scribe had asked to offer a ‘second’ commandment – ‘to love one’s neighbour as oneself’ – bringing Lev 19:18 alongside the text from Deuteronomy.
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 neighbour, cannot simply be reduced to loving action on behalf of the neighbour.
Loving one’s neighbour ‘as oneself’ may not, at first sight, seem all that demanding. It does not require putting the interests of the neighbour 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.
LOVING SERVICE
The friendly scribe goes on to offer a lengthy commendation, repeating virtually word for word all that Jesus had said concerning the two commandments and adding a further comment: that all this is ‘much more important than burnt offerings or sacrifices’. He is, then, a learned Jew who has come to accept that what God wants from the covenant people is loving service of the neighbour rather than the sacrificial ritual, which was in any case soon to disappear with the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70CE. The scribe has come close, then, to that radicalisation of the Torah associated with the onset of the Rule (‘Kingdom’) of God proclaimed by Jesus. This is why Jesus can commend him for being ‘not far from the Kingdom of God’.
In this context, the otherwise disparate Second Reading, from Heb 7:23-28, acquires a certain relevance. It speaks of the contrast between the eternal priesthood of Jesus in comparison with the long line of high priests continually in need of replacing under the old sacrificial system. Believers must be confident that underpinning their relationship with God is the permanent and supremely efficacious intercession of Christ as High Priest.
Brendan Byrne, SJ, FAHA, taught New Testament at Jesuit Theological College, Parkville, Vic., for almost 40 years. He is now Emeritus Professor at the University of Divinity (Melbourne). His commentaries on the Gospels can be found at Pauline Books and Media