31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, November 3, 2024
/Do not obsess about rules; instead, act out of love
Mark 12:28–34
One of the scribes, when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well he had answered them, asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Jesus replied, “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, 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.”
The scribe said to him, “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.”
And when Jesus saw that [he] answered with understanding, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Music Meditations
- “Love (One Another)” (Maranatha! Music) [YouTube]
- “10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)” (by Matt Redman) [YouTube]
Opening Prayer
From Love, A Guide for Prayer, by Jacqueline Bergan and Marie Schwan:
Companions for the Journey
When I was growing up in the pre-Vatican II Irish Catholic ghetto into which I was born, there were a lot of rules to learn, commandments to keep and strictures which must be followed. In Judaism, there were over six hundred commandments in the religious laws Jesus’ time and rabbis were often asked to prioritize them for their disciples so as to put appropriate stress on those that were more important (“heavy laws”) and those less important (“less weighty”). I think the version of American Catholicism in which I was brought up had that number of 600 Jewish laws beat by a mile. The majority of these rules were prohibitions, with appropriate and dire consequences to follow if we strayed out of the lane we were supposed to be in and committed a sin. Being a good Catholic was identified with obeying the rules of the Church, large and small. We divided infractions of the laws as either mortal or venial sins, and spent a lot of time convincing ourselves that what we did wrong fell into the venial, or lesser category. The main motivation was fear of angering God and therefore going to hell. There also existed the “rules” of our individual Catholic families or our particular culture (some of which were unwritten, but just “known”). These “rules” seem to be something all human institutions create in order to keep people in line and to keep society running civilly, if not smoothly.
The problem occurs when we, like some of our Jewish ancestors, mix up our priorities.
Jesus tells us throughout the gospels that if we do all sorts of good things, observe the most stringent practices, avoid even the occasion of sin, we are missing the mark if our motivation is only religious self-preservation or personal happiness. Jesus’ answer to the scribe (a sort of canon lawyer) is not radical or set apart from what a devout Jew might have said. In fact, he draws from the Hebrew scriptures for his answer. To describe the love we should have for God he quotes Deut. 6:5; which still is the daily prayer prayed by Jewish believers—the Schema. Love of neighbor is commanded in Lev. 19:18, (It is quoted three times in the New Testament, more than any other text from the Hebrew scriptures.) His response provides an over-riding principle that applies to all our religious, ethical and social behavior. All the laws and customs under which we live are to be guided and interpreted according to Jesus’ commandment. It is obvious that Jesus’ teaching about the greatest commandment was very important in the early church since all three synoptic gospels have it.
He emphasizes the two most important commandments out of which all of our actions should flow. Everything we do must be motivated by authentic love of God, out of which will naturally flow love of neighbor. We want to be careful today not to emphasize a message that turns this invitational goal of loving God and neighbor into a command to love God and neighbor. The Invitation to love God completely doesn’t come as a mandate from a dictator God who wishes slave-like docility and complete dedication. You can’t demand such love by issuing a decree from on high. No one can make us love and we cannot make anyone love us. God’s love, like all love, is always invitational and never coercive. So our measuring stick is not how many boxes of goodness we can tick off, how much we give up in Lent, or even if we gave up our bodies to be burnt. St Paul says:
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
And St Teresa of Calcutta put it even more succinctly:
“Not all of us can do great things, but we can all do small things with great love.”
Further reflection:
Weekly Memorization
Taken from the gospel for today’s session…
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength; You shall love your neighbor as yourself
Living the Good News
What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?
Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:
Reflection Questions
- Are you fulfilling these commands?
What do you need to do to love God more?
To love your neighbor more? - If the most important thing is to have a loving heart, how demanding to you find that to be?
What makes it hard to love others? - What commandment(s) are a priority for me?
Which do I struggle with? - How can you love someone you don’t like?
How can you love someone with whom you are angry?
How can you love someone when you just don’t feel like it? - Love is action, not a feeling. Agree or disagree?
- What are some of the ways I can practice loving the unlovable?
- How hard is it to love your neighbor as yourself when you don’t really love yourself?
What does loving yourself mean? - Does our own need for love sometimes push us into dark places?
How do we counter that? - From Sacred Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits:
I notice, too, what Jesus says are the two important commandments. They are about love, not about rules. Do I sometimes think rules are the most important thing?
Do I sometimes judge those who break the rules? - Was there ever a time in my life when I wanted to love or to be loved, but was unable to elicit either?
- How often have I expressed my love for another by saying: “I’m sorry”, or “I understand”, or “You matter to me”, or how can I help”?
- Is it hard for me to love those who are continuous whiners or blamers?
- Is it hard for me to love someone who is richer, prettier, smarter, more successful, someone who writes those “braggy” Christmas letters or curated Instagram posts?
How do I get past resentment or envy or irritation to love someone less than loveable? - How, exactly, do I define neighbor?
- What are the signs in my life that, like the scribe, I am “not far from the kingdom of God?
Am I a sign of the kingdom of God to others?
When and how? - A long time ago in England, Jonathan Swift said: “We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.” How true is this today?
Has our religious tradition ever been guilty of fearing, judging, criticizing or even “hating” other religious traditions?
How can we deal with this issue?
Can you point to specific instances of improved relations between Catholics and Jews in recent years?
What importance do they have? - Father Walter Burghardt, S.J. said, in a commentary on this gospel, that the opposite of love is not hate; the opposite of love is indifference. What do you think?
Meditations
A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:
From Sacred Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits:
Lord, why should I love you with all my heart? Because if a group of good people set up a beautiful house and gardens for me to live in, I would love them. If they worked against all that might hurt me, I would love them . If one of them would die a horrible death to save me from disaster, I would love them. If they, Lord, promised eternal joy, I would love them.
Question: Is this love, gratitude or coercion? Is it possible for us to mix up our motives for loving and confuse love with self-interest?
How hard is it to separate love from gratitude or love from habit or obligation? Can you make some love you by being good to them? Have you ever “guilted” someone into “loving” you be showering them with gifts, attention or helping them out of a tight spot? How, then, do you know it is love? How, then, does God know it is love?
A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:
Just how do I love myself? To take care of my needs, I plan ahead; I give energy, time and money to those things that provide comfort and enjoyment, for example. So, do I love others in the same way? I consider this quote by St. Basil the Great, also a Doctor of the Church from the fourth century: “The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.” How does this relate to the second part of the great commandment? Is it too strict and too harsh? What changes can you make in your need to possess and to be comfortable that somehow benefits those less fortunate? Make a plan and execute it.
A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:
Psalm 19 is actually a better reflection on the gospel than Sunday's psalm 18, because it deals with God's laws, the laws of nature and the laws (commandments) which govern human behavior. Read this verse from Psalm 19 and contemplate the rewards of following God’s laws. Then re-write the psalm as a personal letter to God, using the second person to address God, and to tell God personally how the laws of the universe and the laws governing personal behavior have affected you personally: ("Lord, your law is perfect", because it revives my soul, … etc.).:
The law of the Lord is perfect, it revives the soul. The rule of the Lord is to be trusted, it gives wisdom to the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, they gladden the heart. The command of the Lord is clear, it gives light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is holy, abiding forever. The decrees of the Lord are truth, and all of them are just. They are more to be desired than gold, than the purest gold, And sweeter are they than honey, than honey from the comb. So in them your servant finds instruction; great reward is in their keeping.
A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:
If you were God, what would be the laws of the universe that you would devise? What commandments would you give to your people? How are your commandments different from what you perceive as the laws God has set in place? Which of God’s laws are the hardest for you to obey? Love your enemy? or feed the hungry (not the deserving--the hungry)? or comfort the afflicted? or visit the imprisoned? or.......?
Pick one precept that you find particularly difficult to deal with and pray to God for the gift of empathy and generosity.
Poetic Reflection:
Read the Following poem by Stanford graduate Thomas Centolella. What does it say to you about the one thing that is necessary to create the kingdom of God on earth?
“In The Evening We Shall Be Examined On Love”
-St. John of the CrossAnd it won’t be multiple choice,
though some of us would prefer it that way.
Neither will it be essay, which tempts us to run on
when we should be sticking to the point, if not together.
In the evening there shall be implications
our fear will turn to complications. No cheating,
we’ll be told and we’ll try to figure the cost of being true
to ourselves. In the evening when the sky has turned
that certain blue, blue of exam books, blue of no more
daily evasions, we shall climb the hill as the light empties
and park our tired bodies on a bench above the city
and try to fill in the blanks. And we won’t be tested
like defendants on trial, cross-examined
till one of us breaks down, guilty as charged. No,
in the evening, after the day has refused to testify,
we shall be examined on love like students
who don’t even recall signing up for the course
and now must take their orals, forced to speak for once
from the heart and not off the top of their heads.
And when the evening is over and it’s late,
the student body asleep, even the great teachers
retired for the night, we shall stay up
and run back over the questions, each in our own way:
what’s true, what’s false, what unknown quantity
will balance the equation, what it would mean years from now
to look back and know
we did not fail.(from Lights & Mysteries)
Closing Prayer
From Ed Ingebretzen, S.J.:
