Thirty-first Sunday

Thirty-first Sunday Ordinary
November 5, 2006

"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!" (Deuteronomy 6: 2-6) "To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself..." (Mark 12:28- 34)

Moses imparts the first and greatest commandment along with a clear reference to the one and only G-d of Israel, the Most High. Jesus answers the question of the scribe about the greatest commandment by quoting Moses directly. This high-ranking temple official who agrees with Jesus is told that he is "not far from the kingdom of God." Is there a clearer statement anywhere of the Israelite-Jewish roots of Christian religion? Jesus was Semitic by birth and Jewish by faith. Anti-Semitism is inherently a betrayal of Christ, his teachings, and the church built upon them

Whoever prays to the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is praying with Christ and Moses, regardless of what name we use. If there is only one "one God", then there can be no rival god competing for supremacy, whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim. What happens then to the claims if that "God is on our side"? The one God is always on the side of freedom, justice, benevolence, tolerance and mercy. Whoever loves God, by any name, and other people, is "not far from the kingdom of heaven".

Commitment to the love of fellow human beings is acknowledgment of the one true God. How can we love our fellow human beings without also regarding with similar reverence the natural environment which sustains us? Moses and Jesus call this attitude of mind and heart a "commandment", not because we keep it out of duty or obligation but because it is the essence of all true religion. There is no separating love of God and love of God's creation. There is no priority of one over the other, no "love God first", because there is only one love just as there is only one God.

We pray well when we simply direct our attention of mind and heart, without asking for anything, in appreciation and gratitude to God along with everyone and everything God has created. This prayer in the Holy Spirit of God can transform us into people who are able to love without distinction about who or what is "worthy". In God's "eyes" everything is worthy of being loved. What we call "evil" is only the illusion that things are otherwise than this. What a difference it could make in our lives if we were only to accept that God sees only what is good in us. Whenever we are able to do this, and even when we are not, we like the holy scribe are not far from the kingdom of heaven. In fact we are already there.