By Father Paul Nord, O.S.B.
Sunday Scripture
First Reading: Deuteronomy 6:2-6; Response: Psalm 18:2-4, 47, 51; Second Reading: Hebrews 7:23-28; Gospel: Mark 12:28b–34
The book of Deuteronomy is primarily a speech by Moses in which he prepares the Israelites for entering into the Promised Land. God has decreed that Moses shall not enter the land with them. In this speech, Moses tells the Israelites to have reverence — “fear” — for the Lord God. Thus they should always keep “all his statutes and commandments.” If they do, then they will have a long life and prosper.
Moses recalls “the promise of the LORD, the God of your fathers, to give you a land flowing with milk and honey.” This description (“land of milk and honey”) is first found in Exodus 3:8 and 3:17. When Moses encounters God in the burning bush, God tells Moses that he is sending him to liberate the Israelites from Egypt. After this, God will give the Israelites “a land flowing with milk and honey” — he promises Moses. But this is a continuation of God’s earlier promise to Abram (Abraham) in Genesis 12:1: “The LORD said to Abram: Go forth from your land, your relatives, and from your father's house to a land that I will show you.” Abram leaves — obeying God’s command. When Abram arrives in the land, God repeats his promise: “To your descendants I will give this land” (Genesis 12:7). In today’s reading, Moses reminds the Israelites of God’s earlier promise.
Next, Moses says: “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!” This is today an essential Jewish prayer which observant Jews pray twice per day. The prayer’s common name is its first word: “Shema” — which means “hear” or “listen.” The prayer’s opening words are an expression of belief in the one true God — monotheism. This prayer gives the one true God’s name: “YHWH” — traditionally translated as “LORD.”
Following this is a command: “Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God ...” Moses tells the Israelites that since YHWH has made himself “our God,” so the Israelites must love the Lord God in return. They must love God with their whole being — “with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” This describes a complete, limitless love. Moses commands them: “Take to heart these words."
In our second reading, the letter to the Hebrews contrasts the priesthood of Jesus versus the “levitical” priesthood of the temple in Jerusalem. The preceding verse declares that “Jesus (has) become the guarantee of a better covenant” (Hebrews 7:22). Thus Jesus is a high priest who brings a new covenant that establishes a new relationship with God. The high priesthood of Jesus is eternal — he “has a priesthood that does not pass away” — unlike the Jerusalem high priests who all died. By contrast, Jesus “lives forever to make intercession” for us.
In contrast with the high priests of the old covenant, Jesus is “holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, higher than the heavens.” The previous high priests were obligated to repeatedly offer sacrifices for their own sins and the sins of the people. By contrast, Jesus’ crucifixion is eternally effective — “he offered himself” for our sins. Jesus is thus both high priest and sacrificial victim.
In the last verse, Jesus is described as “a son” who has been appointed by God for this task with “the word of the oath.” This refers to Psalm 110:4, which says: “The LORD has sworn and will not waver: ‘You are a priest forever in the manner of Melchizedek.’” This psalm text is cited in Hebrews 7:21, and this image of a sworn oath returns here in 7:28. God has chosen to bind himself with an oath that establishes a new covenant through Jesus Christ, his son. Jesus is our high priest. He is the “guarantee” (7:22) of God’s new covenantal relationship with us.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus declares that the first commandment is loving God completely — heart, soul, mind and strength. Jesus says the second commandment is “love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus is responding to a scribe, who agrees wholeheartedly with Jesus’ words. These commandments to love God and neighbor are recognized by the scribe as “worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
Jesus likewise praises the scribe — telling him “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” In Mark’s Gospel, most of the scribes and leaders are hostile to Jesus. They ask questions to try to challenge his authority. In contrast, the scribe in this passage respectfully approaches Jesus with an open heart and mind.
Complete love of God is the necessary response to faith in God. This belief is expressed by Jesus’ initial words: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!” Jesus is citing Deuteronomy 6:4-5 — part of our first reading described above. Again, this is the “Shema” — an essential Jewish prayer and confession of faith in the one true God.
God has made himself “our God” by entering into a covenantal relationship with us. If we don’t love God in return, then we are failing to recognize the great love that God has shown for us by entering into covenant with us. To the Israelites, God swore a covenantal oath: “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God.” Now, we Christians recognize that God has sworn a new covenantal oath through Jesus Christ — as the letter to the Hebrews describes above. God has established a new covenantal relationship with all who follow Christ Jesus. Thus we also should love God completely — heart, soul, mind and strength.
For the second commandment, Jesus is citing Leviticus 19:18: “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” In this Leviticus verse, “neighbor” refers to fellow Israelites. But Jesus teaches his disciples that they must also love their enemies and Samaritans (see Luke 6:27-36 and Luke 10:29-37). Thus Jesus teaches that loving our neighbor means loving everyone — especially those whom we find it most difficult to love.