Today’s text places Jesus in the temple where, he was involved in a series of discussions and controversies with the religious authorities. Mark presents a scribe who proposed a theological question that was much discussed among the scribes: “What is the most important precept?”, the greatest of all, that from which all the rest derive.
It was not a superficial question because it was a matter of discerning from which commandment all the others derived. The scribes had discovered 613 commandments of the Law and the question was: Of these 613 commandments, which one is the most important? It is important that we also ask ourselves this very simple question: What is the commandment from which all the behaviours that I have in my life derive?
Contrary to what the scribe expected, Jesus responds ignoring the commandments of Moses. And, instead of a commandment, Jesus cites the creed of Israel: “Hear, O Israel!” The first commandment is to listen to God. We need to let the Word of God enter into our hearts that transforms us. Hear O Israel, Adonai is our God … You must listen to Adonai’. He tells you that He is the liberator, the father of the poor, of widows, the protector of foreigners.
Then come the prescriptions: “You will love him with all your heart …” Loving God with all your heart means that He is at the origin of all our decisions. We trust him and let him enter into our life with his word. Then, “with all your soul.” All moments of life must be oriented towards God; life must be spent to fulfil the will of the Lord. ‘You will love the Lord with all your life’. Then, “with all your strength,” which means ‘with everything’. And then Jesus adds something to this Creed of Israel: You will love him “with all your mind.” If you want the adhesion to God to be solid, unbreakable, to be serious, well-founded, it is necessary to love him ‘with the whole mind’, with intelligence, with study.
Then, the second commandment: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Without being asked, Jesus added this second commandment. It is found in chapter 19 of the book of Leviticus. We cannot return God’s love directly to Him, we must make it pass through the brother. And here we come to the last frontier indicated by Jesus: to love the brother, to love everybody, also to love the enemies … not as ourselves, but as God has loved them. One cannot go any further.
To enter the kingdom of God, one must approach Christ, study his message in depth, evaluate his proposal and give him one’s conscious and resolute adherence. To make this choice, one must first travel with him on the road from Galilee to Jerusalem.
For your reflection:
Reading Mark’s Gospel is equivalent to making this journey. It may be that having reached the last page, one does not yet dare to offer one’s life with Jesus. There is no need to be discouraged because of this; one must resume the journey with him, starting again from Galilee.
Father Fernando Torres CMF
www.ciudadredonda.org
Translated by
Father Alberto Rossa CMF
