31st Sunday B

31^st Sunday in Ordinary Time B

Readings: Deuteronomy 6:2-6  Hebrews 7:23-28  Mark 12:28-34

Today’s pop psychology speaks of “ordering one’s priorities.”  In this Sunday’s readings both Moses and Jesus offer a simple, but profound, wisdom to guide us in a complex age when we may be confused by the myriad of options for “ordering our lives.”  Jesus’ teaching, rooted in the Torah given by God to Israel, summarizes the whole of our obligations in two commandments: complete love of God and love of neighbor as self.  In gratitude for the clarity of this teaching, we pray in the words of the refrain for today’s responsorial psalm: “I love you, Lord, my strength” (Ps 18:2).

In the Deuteronomy reading Moses, addressing the twelve tribes as they are about to enter the promised land, exhorts them to keep God’s statutes and commandments so that they may grow and prosper in “the land flowing with milk and honey” which God is giving them.  Following the exhortation, Moses gives Israel the Shema`, the principal Jewish confession of faith. “Hear, O Israel!  The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” In this command, love is not romantic or erotic attraction, but fidelity to the obligations of the law. Deuteronomy does not make a false distinction between an ethic of law and love.  Moses commands Israel to internalize his instructions for obeying the law. “Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day. Impress them upon your children.  Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up.  Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead; inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

The second reading from Hebrews reminds us that in Jesus we have a heavenly high priest who “is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he forever lives to make intercession for them.”  This assurance is based on a contrast between the ritual of the old covenant order and that of the new, accomplished by Jesus’ sacrifice.  According to Hebrews, the old covenant’s ritual was impermanent and inferior; its “many priests were prevented by death from remaining in office,” and the high priest had “to offer sacrifice day after day, first for his own sins and then for those of the people.”  In contrast, the permanent new covenant sealed by Jesus’ death has a high priest who “remains forever.”  He is “holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners,” and he offers only one sacrifice, “once for all when he offered himself.”           

Mark’s account of the dialogue between Jesus and a scribe is set in the Temple precincts during Jesus’ last days in Jerusalem when he is in bitter controversy with the chief priests, scribes, and elders (see Mark chs 11-12).  In the next chapter, Jesus will announce to his disciples that the Temple, defiled by a sacrificial system rooted in money (see Mk 11:15-19; 12:38-44), is destined for destruction.  In the midst of these hostilities, a scribe, impressed by Jesus’ answers to his opponents, sincerely approaches him to learn “Which is the first of all the commandments?”  This was a question commonly proposed to Jewish teachers.

Significantly, Jesus’ answer has nothing to do with the sacrificial ritual of the Temple.  He quotes two commandments from the Torah which are not to be equated, but are joined by the word “love” and stress inner, basic attitudes.  The first is the Shema`, taken from the Deuteronomy passage read in our first reading.  The second, from Leviticus 19:18, summarizes the ethical obligations to the neighbor under the single command: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

In joyful recognition of the truth of Jesus’ teaching, the scribe exclaims that to observe these two commands “is worth more than any burnt offering or sacrifice.”  Jesus, who will shortly announce the destruction of the Temple with its sacrifices (Mk 13:1-2), approves the scribe’s insight saying: “You are not far from the reign of God.”