Br Francis Gonsalves SJ –
31st Sunday of the Year – Cycle B – 31 October 2021
Readings: Deut 6:2-6; Heb 7:23-28; Mk 12:28-34
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart …and your neighbour as yourself” (Mk)
Homily Hint: ‘Journeying together’ with Jesus and with all people requires that we listen to all, learn from all and love everyone. To listen, to learn and to love… The wellspring of LOVE is God; yet, without loving all our sisters-brothers, any talk of loving God is meaningless and fruitless.
Jesus encounters a scribe:
- Jesus is always open to encounter: to being questioned, listening, learning, teaching and loving—whether it be the rich young man, or his disciples James and John, or the blind Bartimaeus as we have seen in the readings of the past three Sundays. Today, he encounters a scribe—who today you might call a ‘theologian’ or a ‘canon lawyer’—well versed in scripture and the laws and traditions of their ancestors. The scribe asks a question: “Which commandment is the first of all?” The question arises in the context of the confusion created by the scribes and the rabbis who debated endlessly on legal and ritual matters.
Most of their debates served no practical purpose except to showcase their superiority over others in matters of law, rite and ritual. Anyway, the scribe who raises the question seems to be a sincere seeker. Jesus does not judge him but enters into a dialogue with him, hoping that he will be able to see truth as it is and be transformed. The dialogue ends in the scribe reaching a deeper understanding of the law with Jesus sensing that the dialogue has enriched him and brought him to a fuller understanding of the vertical and horizontal dimensions of love: love of God and love of neighbour.
The consultation about law and love:
- Given the fact that the scribes and the Pharisees had multiplied the Decalogue or the ‘ten commandments’ with innumerable dos and don’ts, rules and regulations, Jesus sought to teach the scribe what is most important and what’s not. Thus, he mentions the ‘Shema Israel’ — the ‘Hear, O Israel!’ invocation that became the daily Jewish prayer (Deut 6:4-6). This was the core of the Torah. However, Jesus takes the ‘love commandment’ to a higher plane by juxtaposing the love of neighbour—“You must love your neighbour as yourself!” (Lev 19:18)—with the love of God. Basically, Jesus teaches that love of God is a farce and futile if it doesn’t lead to love of neighbour, and the love of neighbour is rootless and aimless if it doesn’t spring from love of God. So, asking which comes ‘first’ is like asking: which comes first—the chicken or the egg? These loves are not really two, but One Love, for each inheres in and inspires the other.
The conversion from the consultation-conversation:
- When one truly encounters an ‘other’ to listen and to learn, a conversion takes place. The encounter and the conversation with Jesus lead the scribe to be converted, at least in his thinking. He says that the love of God and neighbour, “is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” (v.33) This is a strong statement for a scribe for whom rites, rituals and sacrifices are of prime importance. Jesus notices the progress of his thought. Jesus “saw that he answered wisely” and said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (vv.34). This king-dom of God is a kin-dom with everyone being sister and brother, friend and neighbour. This applies especially to the poorest of poor. The neighbour for Jews of Jesus’ time … and, for Jesus
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For the Jew of Jesus’ time, the neighbour was a fellow-Jew, by virtue of being a ‘chosen one’ and a partner in the covenant with Yahweh. Not so for Jesus! For Jesus, the love of neighbour is not merely love of the fellow-Jew or, in today’s terminology, one’s ‘country cousins’ or ‘friends-circle’, but is the one who responds with compassion to the wounded traveler as seen in the story of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37). There, neither the priest nor the Levite prove to be ‘neighbour’ but a lowly, despised Samaritan emerges as hero.
A Possible Link of the Psalm and 2nd Reading to the Theme: The refrain to the psalm (18) expresses a fitting response to the command of the Shema: “I love you, Lord, my strength.” The Letter to the Hebrews (7:23-28), which explains Christ’s priesthood, shows that Christ’s new covenant is based upon his new commandment harmonizing love of God and neighbour. Hence, “He has no need, like those [former] high priests, to offer sacrifices daily…. he did this for all when he offered up himself”. His priesthood becomes the model of perfect, self-sacrificing love.
Journeying Through Catholic Tradition:
- Early in the apostolic Tradition, evangelist John reminds his community about the love-commandment. Apart from the well-known command: “Love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 15:12), he writes more pointedly, “If someone says s/he loves God and hates her/his brother, s/he is a liar; for s/he who does not love her/his brother who s/he has seen, cannot love God whom s/he has not seen” (1 Jn 4:20). So also, James calls this commandment, a “royal law” and stresses: “faith without works is dead” (Jam 2:8,17,26).
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Pope Benedict XVI in ‘Deus Caritas Est’: By participating in the Eucharist, we too become involved in the dynamics of Christ’s act of giving. We unite ourselves to Him, and at the same time unite ourselves with everyone else to whom He gives Himself. Thus, we all become ‘a single body’. In this way, love for God and love for others are truly fused together. The dual commandment, thanks to this encounter with the ‘agape’ of God, is no longer just a requirement: love can be ‘commanded’, because first it was given.”
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Pope Francis in ‘Fratelli Tutti,’ n.80. Neighbors without borders: “Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan in answer to the question: Who is my neighbor? ‘Neighbor’, in the society of Jesus’ time, usually meant those nearest us. It was felt that help should be given primarily to those of one’s own group and race. For some Jews of that time, Samaritans were looked down upon, considered impure. They were not among those to be helped.
Jesus, himself a Jew, completely transforms this approach. He asks us not to decide who is close enough to be our neighbour, but rather that we ourselves become neighbors to all.”
This Synod seeks “to focus on maximum inclusion and participation, reaching out to involve the greatest number of people possible, especially those on the periphery who are often excluded and forgotten.” May we love all those on the periphery as neighbors, siblings, friends … and teachers!
Fr. Francis Gonsalves, SJ is the Executive Secretary, CCBI Comm. of Theology & Doctrine and President, Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, Pune and former Principal of Vidyajyoti College, Delhi. He is also the Executive Secretary of the CCBI Commission for Theology and Doctrine. He has authored many books and articles and is a columnist with The Asian Age and The Deccan Chronicle national dailies.