The greatest of all commandments
November 4, 2018
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time 1st Reading: Deuteronomy 6:2-6 2nd Reading: Hebrews 7:23-28 Gospel: Mark 12:28-34
A teacher of the Law had been listening to this discussion and admired how Jesus answered them. So he came up and asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is: Hear, Israel! The Lord, our God, is One Lord; and you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. And after this comes another one: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these two.” The teacher of the Law said to him, “Well spoken, Master; you are right when you say that he is one and there is no other. To love him with all our heart, with all our understanding and with all our strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves is more important than any burnt offering or sacrifice.” Jesus approved this answer and said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
Impressed by the way Jesus handled previous controversies, a Teacher of the Law tried a more complicated trap on Jesus by way of a question. He asked: “Which commandment is the first of all?” The question should not have been asked in the first place because to a devout Jew, all the commandments were to be kept with equal devotion. The man might have hoped to extract from Jesus an answer that would disturb this Jewish belief.
Instead of ignoring the question, Jesus met the man head on. Quoting from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 Jesus replied: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.” Jesus even went beyond the question by volunteering information about a second great commandment. Quoting from Leviticus 19:18 Jesus said: “And after this comes another one: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
It was not as insidious as the Teacher of the Law intended the question to be. Jesus’ answer did not disturb the religious convictions of the Jews since the combination of love of God and love of neighbor may have already been a settled doctrine in Judaism. In Matthew 19:18-19, for example, a rich young man told Jesus that he had faithfully followed the commandments as enumerated by Jesus. The enumeration included love of God and love of neighbor.
The answer was like a counterpunch against the Teacher of the Law. He was a lawyer and therefore it was easy from him to recognize that the answer challenged him to an evaluation of his observance of the duty to love his neighbor. Surely he did not love Jesus! – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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