As this Liturgical Year (Cycle B)’s end draws nearer, we have been following Jesus on his last journey to Jerusalem through Sunday Mass Gospel Readings since the 28th Sunday (Mark 10:17-30). With 3 more Sundays remaining in the Liturgical Year (32nd Sunday, 33rd Sunday, and 34th Sunday (Christ the King Sunday)), we are really coming closer to the end of this Liturgical Year on the 31st Sunday. And the Gospel Reading for the 31st Sunday (Mark 12:28b-34) also reflects this, as Jesus already entered the city of Jerusalem (Mark 11:1-11). It took in Jerusalem during Jesus’ last 5 days to his death on the Cross.
Upon entering this Holy City, Jerusalem, Jesus faced
scrutinizing challenges by those who wanted to test him and to trap him (Mark
11:27-12:34), upon cleansing the Temple (Mark 11:15-19). This is the background context of the Gospel
Reading for the 31st Sunday (Mark 12:28b-34).
A scribe, who heard how Jesus fended off ensnaring
challenges, came to Jesus and asked, “Which
is the first of all the commandments?”(Mark 12:28), as to test Jesus’ insights into the Torah, which contains 613
commandments (mitzvot).
Jesus replied, first citing Deuteronomy 6:4, which
is known as the Shema, which means
“hear”, being used for Jewish confession of faith in the morning and in the
evening, then, citing Deuteronomy 6:5, which is addressed in the First Reading
(Deuteronomy 6:2-6), and Leviticus
19:18:
The
first is this: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love
the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul (being), with all
your mind, and with all your strength”. The second is this: “You shall love
your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these”
(Mark 12:29-31).
In response, the scribe showed his understanding of
Jesus’ take on the supreme commandment (Mark 12:30; Deuteronomy 6:5), put
together with the second supreme one (Mark 12:31; Leviticus 19:18), saying to
Jesus:
Well
said, teacher. You are right in saying, “He is One and there is no other than
he.”And ‘”to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with
all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself” is worth more than
all burnt offerings and sacrifices (Mark 12:32-33).
The scribe demonstrated his comprehension of what
Jesus meant by saying that there is no other commandment greater than
Deuteronomy 6:5 (to love God totally and above all) and Leviticus 19:18 (to
love neighbor as yourself) by adding his own words, “worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices worth more than all
burnt offerings and sacrifices”(Mark 12:33b). The scribes learned from
Jesus that Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 carry heavier weight than other
commandments, like these on burnt offerings and sacrifices, such as Exodus
27:1-8; 40:6; Leviticus 1:1-17; 3:1-17; 4:1-6:13; 7:1-10, 11-21. Perhaps, this
scribe witnessed how Jesus cleansed the Temple (Mark 11:15-17) and thought of
how displeasing to God it is to offer meaningless sacrifices with wicked heart
(Proverbs 15:5; Isaiah 1:11-15) for his statement in Mark 12:33b.
And noticing how well the scribe understood him,
Jesus said:
You
are not far from the kingdom of God (Mark 12:34).
A kind of sacrifice pleasing to God is to love God
and to love neighbors through our praises to God and to do good to others by
sharing what we have (Hebrews 13:15-16).
An important theme to reflect on the 31st
Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, is that we see Jesus teaching that all the
613 commandments (mitzvot) in the
Torah boil down to the twofold outgoing nature of love: To love God without compromise
(Deuteronomy 6:5) and to love neighbors as yourself (Leviticus 19:18)(Mark
12:29-31). This is because God loves us
first (1 John 4:11, 19), and indeed, God is love (1 John 4:8, 16). For we are
to love for being loved by God (1 John 4:7-21), Paul reminds how essential love
is in our Christian life of faith (1 Corinthians 13:1-3) and explains what
love’s nature is (1 Corinthians 13:4-8) and the supremacy of love in connection
to spiritual maturity and fullness (1 Corinthians 13:9-13).
In fact, to our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:31;
Leviticus 19:18) as one another, is in Jesus’ Mandatum Novum (John 13:34).
In Luke’s Gospel, we see Jesus giving a concrete
example of what it means to love your neighbor (Mark 12:31; Leviticus 19:18)
with the example of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37). In this, Jesus connects
love and mercy.
And in Matthew’s Gospel, we see how our observance
of the commandment to love neighbors (Mark 12:31; Leviticus 19:18) , after all,
leads to our practice of the commandment to love God (Mark 12:30; Deuteronomy
6:5), as it is done as the Good Samaritan did (Luke 10:29-37), as loving our
neighbors, especially whose needs are greater, means loving God incarnated in
the human flesh of Jesus (Matthew 25:40).
This is how we see love is twofold, vertically
binding God and we, as well as horizontally keeping us together as neighbors –
as brothers and sisters in Christ, as one (John 14:20; 17:23). And this is what
it means to remain in love (John 15:9-10; 1 John 4:15-16). So, this vertical-horizontal
twofold outgoing character of love by putting Deuteronomy 6:5 (vertical love
from us to God) and Leviticus 19:18(horizontal love from one another among us
as neighbors and brothers and sisters in Christ as one), as Jesus put it and
indicated that all the 613 commandments in the Torah are for this (Mark
12:29-31).
The vertical orientation of our expression of love
to God (Mark 12:30; Deuteronomy 6:5; cf. Exodus 20:2-11) and the horizontal
orientation of our love to neighbors – to one another (Mark 12:31; Leviticus
19:18; cf. John 13:34; Luke 10:29-37) form a cross-shape. And the Cross is the
most powerful symbol of love (cf. John 15:13; cf. John 10:11, 15). Because God
became flesh in Jesus to be our neighbor, dwelling among us (i.e. John 1:1, 14), this the vertical
expression of our love to God (Mark 12:30; Deuteronomy 6:5; cf. Exodus 20:2-11)
and horizontal expression of our love to neighbor – one another (Mark 12:31;
Leviticus 19:18; cf. Luke 10:29-37) crosses in Matthew 25:40. And because of
Mark 12:30; Deuteronomy 6:5; cf. Exodus 20:2-11, Jesus demands to love him
above anyone else, even our own beloved parents and brothers and sisters
(Matthew 10:37; Luke 14:26) with nothing earthly to hold us back rather than
simply obeying the commandments (i.e. Mark 9:17-31). And in the Gospel Reading
for the 32nd Sunday (Mark 12:38-44), we see a poor widow, who poured
all she had with her into the Temple treasury though it was a fraction to what
wealthy people put excess of their assets, in terms of what it means to love
God love with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your being, and with
all your strength (Deuteronomy 6:5; Mark 12:30), which Jesus regards as the
highest commandment. Jesus calls the way the poor widow demonstrated her love
of God is pouring her livelihood (Mark 12:44).
We can offer our entire livelihood to God in loving
God, as the poor widow did (Mark 12:38-44), not just because it is the most
supreme commandment to love God with all your heart, with all your being, with
all your strength (Deuteronomy 6:5; Mark 12:30) but because God, who is love,
loved us first (1 John 4:8, 11, 16, 19). And God loved us by sending us His
only begotten Son (John 3:16; cf. 1 John 4:9-12, 14), incarnating Word, which
is God (John 1:1, 14), in the human flesh of Jesus through Mary by the power of
the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18; Luke 1:35) so that he can be among us (John
1:14) as our neighbor to be loved (i.e. Leviticus 19:18; Mark 12:31; cf.
Matthew 25:31-40). And we can love our neighbors not just as we love ourselves
(Leviticus 19:18; Mark 12:31) but as we love God with all your heart, with all
your soul, with all your strength (Deuteronomy 6:5; Mark 12:30), by pouring our
whole livelihood, as exemplified by St Damien of Molokai, who pour out his
whole live in serving his leper neighbors, and St. Maximilian Kolbe, who offered himself in
order to save his neighbor in the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz,
pointing to where the vertical move of our love to God (Deuteronomy 6:5; Mark
12:30) and horizontal move of our love to neighbors (Leviticus 19:18; Mark 12:31)
meet by loving Christ in poor Jesus (Matthew 25:40).
So, John reminds us how we can truly love God with
all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength unless we love our
neighbors, because it is how Jesus commanded us as by putting Deuteronomy 6:4-5
and Leviticus 19:18 together as above all other 611 commandments in Torah (Mark
12:29-31)(1 John 4:19-21).
And this is how the cross-shaped symbol of the
twofold love commandments of our vertical love to God (Deuteronomy 6:5) and
horizontal love to our neighbors (Leviticus 19:18) as commanded by Jesus and
indicated as the command above all other commandment as our Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4)(Mark 12:29-30)
is about, echoed by Paul’s emphasis on love in our life of faith (1 Corinthians
13:1-13).
The vertical expression of our love to God
(Deuteronomy 6:5) and the horizontal expression of our love to our neighbors
(Leviticus 19:18) as a set of the supreme commandment (Mark 6:30-31), forming a
cross-shape as a powerful symbol of two-fold love. And this is reflected in all
the 613 commandments (mitzvot) of God
in the Torah. In general, these commandments are put into two categories: ones
that govern our relationship with God (vertical) and ones that govern our
relationship with each other as God’s beloved (horizontal). The Ten
Commandments also follow this pattern as the first three commandments are about
our relationship with God (Exodus 20:2-11), while the rest of the seven
commandments governs how we live as brothers and sisters, as God’s beloved
children, as neighbors (Exodus 20:12-17).
I.
I
am the Lord your God: you shall not have strange Gods before me.
II.
You
shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
III.
Remember
to keep holy the Lord’s Day.
IV.
Honor
your father and your mother.
V.
You
shall not kill.
VI.
You
shall not commit adultery.
VII.
You
shall not steal.
VIII. You shall not bear false witness
against your neighbor.
IX.
You
shall not covet your neighbor's wife.
X.
You
shall not covet your neighbor's goods.
Moses
interpreted the First Commandment: I am
the LORD your God: you shall not have strange Gods before me (Exodus
20:2-6) in these words:
And Jesus cited this to answer the scribe’s question (Mark 12:30). But, in the same breath, he went on to cite Leviticus 19:18, saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”(Mark 12:31), to give deeper insights on the commandment to love God above all without any compromise (Deuteronomy 6:5). This is why John reminds us that we cannot truly observe the most supreme commandment to love God (Deuteronomy 6:5), our vertical love, unless we love our neighbors (Leviticus 19:18) (1 John 4:20-21). We cannot separate the horizontal part from the vertical part of the cross, which is our twofold love, as commanded by Jesus (Mark 12:29-31; 1 John 4:21).
The Cross symbolized how Jesus loves us – giving his
whole being, including his body, blood, soul, and divinity, for us. At the same
time, the Cross symbolically represents the twofold outgoing nature of love: To
love God and to love each other as neighbors. The former goes vertically, from
the bottom to the top, while the latter goes horizontally.
Speaking of the cross-shaped symbol of love, it is
not just about the twofold commandment of love given to us by Jesus (1 John
4:21; Mark 12:29-31) but it is Jesus himself as Christ, the Son of God,
incarnate, because in him, the divinity and the humanity cross. And this is the
fundamental concept of Christology. And this is what makes Jesus as the
everlasting High Priest of ours, different from mere human high priests under
the Law, as reflected in the Second Reading (Hebrews 7:23-28). Because he is the
crossing point of the divinity and the humanity, Jesus, our High Priest, does
not need to offer burnt sacrifice after burnt sacrifice to atone for our sins,
under the Law (Hebrews 7:27a). It is he, who offered his whole being, his body,
blood, soul, and divinity, up on the Cross as the sacrifice once for all
(Hebrews 7:27b), and this cannot be done by any mortal high priests under the
Law but only by Jesus the eternal and perfect High Priest, who represents the
crossing of the divinity and the humanity, under the oath beyond the Law
(Hebrews 7:28).
No comments:
Post a Comment