Getting it right

Thirty First Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

Our gospel passage begins with a question posed by a scribe, a scholarly expert of the Law: “which is the first of all the commandments?” His motives are unclear. Why would an expert of the Law seek knowledge from someone who has no formal training in the Law? Is he trying to test our Lord’s knowledge of the Law? Even if his motives are pure and his question is genuine, being a scholar, was he looking for an intellectual answer rather than some insight that would lead to personal spiritual growth?

But our Lord’s response is not just any theoretical answer which academics enjoy brandishing in public to show off their erudition. He is not just reciting some Jewish catechism from memory. If you have paid attention to the first reading you would realise that the first part of the answer given by the Lord is not novel nor ground breaking. In fact, His answer is surprising precisely because of its simplicity and notoriety. The Shema is an affirmation of God’s singularity and kingship, the foundation of Israel’s covenantal relationship with God and principle which underlies all the commandments. Thus, it is the centrepiece of the daily morning and evening prayers and is considered the most essential prayer in all of Judaism.

It is good to note that the Shema was not meant to be an ethical principle but rather a doctrinal one which asserted that there is but one God, who has created all things and who holds all things in existence by His goodness and power. His claim on us is therefore total, calling for a total response at every level of our being.

In prayer, the faithful Jew carries the text literally before his eyes (traditionally, it is recited with the hand placed over the eyes to block out all distractions), on his hands and on the doorposts of his house, so that he is always aware of the most important loyalty in life. It is a reminder that love of God must dominate all our actions and thoughts; it must be always in our minds and thoughts, and must be the guide of all our deeds and motivations.

The second part of our Lord’s answer is a quotation of Leviticus 19:18: “You must love your neighbour as yourself.” If the first part of our Lord’s answer came as no surprise to His listeners, this second part stands as something unique. Our Lord is the first one known to have explicitly combined these two commandments - the doctrinal is now inseparably tied to the ethical. Our love of God is concretised and expressed in our love for fellow human beings.

St Bede in his commentary on this text, wrote: “neither of these two kinds of love is expressed with full maturity without the other, because God cannot be loved apart from our neighbour, nor our neighbour apart from God… There is only one adequate confirmation of whole-hearted love of God - labouring steadily for the needy in your midst, exercising continuing care for them.”

Our Lord then concludes by stating that “there is no commandment greater than these.” The scribe then condescendingly expresses his approval of what the Lord had said, as if the Lord had given the correct answer to a riddle posed by the scribe. This is ironic since our Lord is in no need of this man’s approval nor is our Lord’s knowledge inferior to his. But our Lord seems to accept the affirmation of this scribe graciously as the latter repeats the formula again whilst adding at the end: “this is far more important than any holocaust or sacrifice.’”

Our Lord recognises the wisdom of this man and appears to praise him for his insight: “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” But these words are double edged. This man may not be far from the kingdom because of his knowledge and learning but he is still not in the kingdom. Thus, our Lord was challenging this scribe to go further than his scholarly knowledge.

Our Lord was helping the scribe to understand that the real answer lay not in any theoretical formulary but its real meaning could only be derived from living out the truth that was conveyed by that answer. Yes, many can give the correct answers to doctrinal questions of faith, but the greater challenge would be to live out that truth in a practical way, to put into practice what we profess with our lips - and what better way of putting into practice the faith we profess than to love our neighbour. Christianity is no mere theoretical or philosophical discipline but an ethical one. Knowledge of our faith will do us little good if we do not put into practice what we profess. Likewise, merely showing acts of kindness and doing good without finding its basis in our love for God in response to His love for us is not enough. In the absence of God, the Church will be nothing more than a non-governmental organisation.

Thus, at the heart of our Christian lives as a whole, we must seek to nurture this precious gift of faith: for as we seek to deepen our understanding of the mysteries of our salvation, so we come to perceive more fully the depth of God’s love for us, and thus are drawn, by His grace, to love Him with more and more of our mind, as of our heart. This love incorporates both the vertical and the horizontal - love of God and love of neighbour - as well as the practical and the intellectual – because we were made by God “to know Him, to love Him, to serve Him and be with Him in paradise forever. If like the scribe in today’s Gospel, we truly grasp the primacy of this, then our Lord’s words are also meant for us: ‘you are not far from the kingdom of God’. But, if we should go further than the scribe by putting this faith and love into practice, then we will be rewarded by another set of our Lord’s words, “yours is the kingdom of heaven.”