Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God: Reflections on the Readings for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

The readings today directly relate to the Ten Commandments. The first reading from Deuteronomy Chapter 6 comes right after Moses’s reiteration of the Decalogue in Chapter 5. Moses is near the end of his time as the leader of Israel just prior to their crossing the river Jordan into the promised land. Moses is summarizing the Exodus and the covenant with the Lord for the benefit of Israel’s future. In this excerpt Moses is reiterating the great commandment. The introduction to this chapter, not part of this excerpt, states, “This then is the commandment, the statutes and the ordinances, which the LORD, your God, has commanded that you be taught to observe in the land you are about to cross into to possess.”

Moses then says, “Hear O Israel!” This is the equivalent of the announcement we see in Navy movies when an important announcement is prefaced with, “Now hear this!” In other words, pay attention, something important is coming. Moses then reminds the Israelites of the “first and greatest commandment,” summarizing the beginning of the Ten Commandments: “The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” In other words, there is one God and everything, all your love, is to be directed to Him, with your whole being.

In the responsorial, the psalmist expresses this love for the Lord. The Lord is his strength, and he gives him the highest praise. Like the psalmist we gain strength from the Lord. Think of the gifts of the Holy Spirit: “The moral life of Christians is sustained by the gifts of the Holy Spirit,” one of which is fortitude or mental and emotional (and in this case spiritual) strength. (CCC 1830) All the words the psalmist uses speak to strength; “My God, my rock of refuge, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!” With the Lord we are safe from our enemies. They may assault us but, as St. Paul tells us, ““Put on the armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” For we are engaged in spiritual warfare. And this is a constant battle. “Spiritual warfare is a commitment for every day and for every hour.” Fr. Livio Fanzaga, The Deceiver

The second reading continues the description of priesthood from the letter to the Hebrews. In particular it talks of the priesthood of Jesus. As we read last week it addresses the eternal priesthood of Jesus. “... but Jesus, because he remains forever,
has a priesthood that does not pass away.” Jesus is the great high priest obviating the need for any other high priests. Furthermore, He is the one true sacrifice, offered once for all as St. Paul also tells us in Romans chapter 6. And Jesus intercedes for us to the Father. Jesus, the Son, who is perfect forever, was appointed by the Father to be our high priest. And through Him, as St. Paul tells us in Romans chapter 8, “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.”

The gospel reading has a slight modification which seems to take the question of the scribe out of context. The full reading of the first verse goes like this: “One of the scribes, when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well he [Jesus] had answered them, asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” The dispute that had been going on was a discussion of the resurrection of the dead with some Sadducees (who didn’t believe in resurrection). Just before the scribe asks his question Jesus asserts to the Sadducees and the crowd, “He is not God of the dead but of the living. You are greatly misled.”

This gives greater meaning to the words that follow where Jesus, quoting from Deuteronomy, declares, “The Lord our God is Lord alone!” (emphasis added). He is a living God and God of the living. But Jesus adds to the quote from Deuteronomy a very important assertion, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” thus completing the summary of the Decalogue with this statement from Leviticus (19:18).

It is interesting that the scribe’s response includes the statement to love God and neighbor “is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." This echoes Psalm 40, “Sacrifice and offering you do not want; ... Holocaust and sin-offering you do not request.” (Psalm 40:7)

All God asks for is our love. For God is love. As St. John told us, “Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:8) And why do we love? “We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) We don’t have to wait for God’s love – it is eternal. Let us not make God wait for our love, both directly and through love of our neighbor.