P. Daniel Antonio de Carvalho Ribeiro, SCJ
31st SUNDAY in OT (Mk 12:28b-34)
Year B – November 3, 2024 (Gospel Reflection)
This Sunday’s Gospel shows us that love is the central commandment of the Christian life. He who does not love surely does not know God. A few weeks ago, a lady came to me saying that her husband would like to be baptized. As he is already old and his health had deteriorated, he asked me to do it with some urgency, and teach him the essentials of the faith in a summarized way. I said yes, that I would just explain to him the meaning of love for God and neighbor. In a world where people have little time for deeper study of faith, Jesus makes it clear that love is the central commandment for those who want to follow Him.
To say that love is the central commandment in the Christian life seems obvious. However, in Jesus’ time it was not quite like that. The concern of the Pharisees and doctors of the law to update the Law so that it would respond to all the needs of daily life unbelievably raised the number of commandments to 613 precepts. Even the number was significant. There were 365 laws that said what could not be done, representing the number of days in the year, and 248 laws to teach what should be practiced, a number that represented the number of members of the body according to the Jewish mentality of the time. Faced with this high number and the lack of consensus even among religious leaders, when asked by a scribe what the most important commandment was, Jesus takes up a teaching from the Pentateuch (cf. Deuteronomy 6:4-5) and affirms that the essential thing is to love God with all our heart, soul, understanding and strength, then we should love our neighbor as ourselves (v. 31).
The problem of today is not in the discussion of which is the greatest commandment. In addition to the significant indifference on the subject, including Christians who wish to live the faith without any kind of “rule” or limit, love has become a relativized and dubious word. There are people who say they love their football club, some young people when they want an intimate act say that this would be proof of love. In the face of this relativization of love, Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium of the Church have much to teach us.
In his First Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul clarifies that “love is patient, love is kind. He does not envy, he does not boast, he is not proud. He does not mistreat, he does not seek his own interests, he does not get angry, he does not hold grudges. Love does not rejoice in injustice but rejoices in truth. He suffers all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never perishes, but prophecies will fade away, tongues will cease, knowledge will be left behind.” (1 Cor 13:4-8). Such clear and direct words show us that loving is not a feeling, it is a decision to treat the other as God treats us.
In his Encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict XVI deepens the theme, reaffirming the Greek thought of treating love as a progressive reality. It begins as Eros, a desire for something that attracts us. This love that has been inserted into the human being by God needs discipline, purification and maturity so as not to lose its original meaning and end up treating the other as a commodity. Then it passes to Philia, mutual care and help like brothers or even good friends. However, love is called to reach a more subline level by becoming Agape, giving one’s life and consuming oneself unconditionally for the beloved. The perfect example of this love is Jesus, who offers his life for the salvation of humanity even though we do not deserve it.
In addition to the challenge of defining the word love, it is necessary to affirm the inseparability of love for God and neighbor. There is a tendency for people to isolate themselves in order to love God more deeply, ignoring the suffering of those around them.
Life shows us that loving does even greater good for those who do it. Christian logic shows us that there is more joy in giving than in receiving (cf. Acts 20:35). Love removes us from our selfishness that isolates us, helping to carry out God’s plan which is the integral salvation of every human being, making us more like God, who is love. Faced with the countless challenges to love, we need to overcome our self-indulgence and human justifications by remembering that we do not love in proportion to the merit of the other, but simply because God has instituted this commandment and asks us to follow it. In fact, it is impossible for us to love just a little. Love does not know the little or the much, love only knows all. The Doctor of Love, Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus, said: “love taught me everything”. All the answers or solutions we need to the most diverse problems are in love. To love assuredly is the shortest and surest way to know God and unite us to Him. Therefore, open your heart to the Love of God and learn to Love as He loves us.
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