Thirty First Sunday of Ordinary Time-B
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” We have heard these two sentences countless times in our faith journey—the commandments of love of God and neighbor. We have heard them so often that they rarely have a lasting effect on us.
The scribe asked Jesus about the first and most important commandment, which Jesus answered with two, not one. The scribe would not be surprised by the preeminent love of God because deep within the Jewish tradition, the love of God is so important. In the Book of Deuteronomy, which happens to be the first reading, Moses teaches his people all that Jesus reiterates with his answer: Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.
By including the mandate of loving your neighbor, Jesus did not equate the two commandments as the same. Instead, he revealed their interconnectedness. This is a development from Moses’ teaching about loving God with your whole being. Jesus was beginning to instruct the world about the Incarnation by answering the scribe in the way he did.
The love your neighbor commandment is pivotal in how we come to know Jesus’s mission. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” Creation is a total expression of God’s love, and when his love was rebuffed by sin in the garden, it was offered again through God’s Son Incarnated as a human being. By assuming human nature, Jesus connected the two commandments of loving God and loving neighbor. One cannot say they love God without including the neighbor because that is precisely what he did.
There is quite a difference between loving an invisible God and another human being. This was the condition the scribe was faced with. He could acknowledge Moses’ admonition and, at the same time, through his worldly experience, see his neighbor as an enemy. It happened often with the many skirmishes with their neighbors the Jews had to live through. In the mind of the scribe, how could he love his enemies? Jesus told him that if he wanted to love God, he must love his neighbors, even if they were the enemy.
The conditions for loving neighbors have not changed, even though there have been two thousand years of teaching. Loving neighbors is tough because they may not love you and even cause you harm. Even still, we are called to love them. Why would God mandate such a herculean effort on our part?
The answer is simple. The New Adam, Jesus, is the archetype of the new humanity. Even when Jesus was tortured and killed, he did not lash out against his tormentors. Instead, he pleaded with his Heavenly Father, “Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” All Christians are called to do the same, no matter how difficult the task. To live a life modeled after Jesus, loving one’s neighbor is non-negotiable.
When the scribe, who was probably unaware that Jesus was the Son of God, nevertheless told Jesus that loving God and neighbor is worth more than any burnt offering or sacrifice, Jesus said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” A remarkable insight from the scribe based only on his limited knowledge of who Jesus was. We not only have that insight, but we also know that Jesus married human with the divine and the love of God and neighbor. When you think about it, if you love God and your neighbor, the remaining eight commandments become somewhat superfluous.
In his letter, St. John succinctly but powerfully commented on Jesus’ words.” We love {God] because he first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, he is a liar; whoever does not love a brother he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
The kingdom of God is filled with people who agree with Jesus, his Blessed Mother, the scribe, St. John, and all the saints. Can we add you to the list?