Exegetical
Reflection on the Gospel of the Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B,
Mark 12:28-34, November 4, 2012
IN ONE OF our reflections, we stressed that the
distinctive feature of Christianity is Jesus himself. Christianity is a religion that is centered
on the person of Jesus Christ. Ours is
not a religion of law. A person is a
Christian, not because he follows the Ten Commandments. (The Jews observe the
Decalogue, so do the Jews. And yet, they
are not Christians.) One is a Christian
he follows Jesus, his word and life.
But, if Christianity is a religion of a person, does this mean that it
has no place for the commandments of God?
Of course, not. Even in civil
society, laws are needed; they are of use to human relationships. All kinds of laws are intended to regulate
order. Without them, society is doomed
to chaos. And of course, in any
religion, probably never was there a time that laws never existed. In Christianity, however, laws are not the
heart of it; basically, the commandments express the people’s response to God’s
initiative. In them we find a manner of
life that is congruent with the offer of God.
That
manner of life is essentially the life of love. The Gospel today makes this
point. When the scribe asked Jesus about
the greatest of the commandments, Jesus summarized them into two, although the
rabbis taught that God gave Moses 613 commandments (365 prohibitions; 248
positive commands). In summarizing them,
he quoted from Deut 6:4-5 (“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.”) and Lev 19:18 (“You shall love
your neighbor as yourself.”). The
summary shows that behind the commandments is revealed the life of love that
God expects from his people. That love
is shown in the love for the neighbor, because this form of love springs from
the love of God.
The
practice of religion, therefore, is not simply about doing nothing bad or
offensive. More than refraining from
evil deed or participation in it, it is always linked with loving God, shown in
the love for others. It is along this
gamut of thought that we shall understand St Augustine’s maxim, “love and do
what you will.” For when a person loves,
he will do nothing that would harm his neighbor because his act of loving comes
from the love of God. Paul describes
this in terms of freedom: “For you were called for freedom, brothers. But do not use this freedom as an opportunity
for the flesh; rather, serve one another through love. For the whole law is fulfilled in one
statement, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Gal
1:13-14). This is the heart of the
Jewish religion, and even of Christian religion—provided that we redefine what
that love is. In Christian
understanding, that love is none other than the love of Christ (John 15:12)
shown in the Eucharist—his body is broken, his blood poured out (Mark
14:22.24). It is this form of love that
ought to animate Christian praxis.
Obviously, it is because of this redefinition that Jesus remarked to the
scribe: “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (Mark 12:24).
This
has many consequences for Christian practice, but we can focus on one. Because love belongs to the heart of
religion, liturgical worship would be less meaningful if there were no
love. This explains why in the Old
Testament, and as the scribe remarked (Mark 13:33), loving God is worth more
than burnt offering and sacrifices: “Sacrifice and offering you do not want,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Holocaust and sin-offerings you do not require, so I said, ‘Here I am’
(Ps 40:7-8a). It is therefore
understandable that, when the Jews laid much emphasis on the cult, the prophets
readily criticized them. Hosea, for
example, declared in God’s name: “For it
is love that I desire, not sacrifice; and knowledge of God rather than
holocausts” (Hosea 6:6; see also Jer 7:21-23; 1 Sam 15:22; Eccles 4:17). This prophetic critique was a serious one,
considering the fact that the Temple worship, together with the Law, was
central to the Jewish religion.
This
has much bearing on our eucharistic celebration and other liturgical and
devotional celebrations. In the final
result, all of them should be celebrations of love. What is so much important is not that we have
fulfilled the rubrics, or omitted nothing in the novena, or we have acquired
charismatic gifts, like the ability to speak in tongues, or the ability to work
miracles. It is our loving attitude to
God, shown in our concern for other people, especially the poor, that
counts. If, for instance, we celebrate
Mass, we ought to know and even feel that we are celebrating the love of
Christ. And it is expected that our
liturgical celebration will deepen our love for him and for others. Our external worship should express our
internal loving attitude; for, otherwise, that would be empty: “If I speak in
human and angelic tongues… if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all
mysteries and all knowledge… if I have all faith so as to move mountains, if I
give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast, but
do not have love, I am nothing” (1 Cor 13:1-3).
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