Today I have the easiest question I’ve ever asked during some sixteen years of asking questions to begin a homily. This one you can answer by raising your hand. My question is this: How many of you have heard of the “Ten Commandments,” the ones in the Bible, not the movie!? Any of you who did not raise your hand might consider joining a bible study group as soon as possible. My second question is a little harder: What is the first commandment? “I am the Lord your God: you shall not have strange gods before me.” Very good.
Now then, the Bible has more commandments than just the Ten Commandments. So, my third question is: How many commandments can be found among all of the commandments of the Old Testament? Six-hundred-thirteen is the usual answer. According to Jewish tradition and teaching, there are three-hundred-sixty-five negative commandments prohibiting certain actions and two-hundred-forty-eight positive commandments stating what you should do, rather than what you should not do, for a total of six-hundred-thirteen commandments.
The scribe, or scripture scholar, we heard about in our gospel reading for today no doubt knew all six-hundred-thirteen commandments. But like a lot of students, he was also a “wise guy,” as well as being a “wise man,” and so he asked Jesus a trick question. This scribe, this student of the Hebrew scriptures, wanted to know: of all of the six-hundred-thirteen commandments, which one of them is the most important, which one is the first commandment? Was it, indeed, “I am the Lord your God: you shall not have strange gods before me?”
In response, Jesus went back to Moses, the law-giver, the one who had received the Law, the Torah, itself, directly from God and had transmitted it to the Israelites. Jesus quoted the passage we heard in our first reading from the book of Deuteronomy, the Book of Laws given to the second generation of Israelites, which is what “Deuteronomy” means: the Second Law, the Law given to the Israelites who weren’t alive at the time the laws where first given to Moses at Mount Sinai, but who were now part of the second generation, the one about to enter into the land flowing with milk and honey.
In response to the scribe’s question, Jesus quoted the Shema, the prayer each law-abiding Jew recited at the beginning of each day: “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.” But Jesus then went on to say that there is a second “greatest commandment” that must be joined with the first one in order for there to be a complete answer to the scribe’s question. Jesus quoted another commandment taken from the Book of Leviticus, the liturgical book of Torah. Jesus went on to say: “The second is this: ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
However, later on, Jesus gave a summary of these two commandments when he said, according to the Gospel of John (13: 34), “… I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.”
The words are so easy to say:
… love God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, your strength,
… love your neighbor,
… love your self,
… love one another as Jesus, himself, loves all of us,
… with all of his heart, all of his passion and tenderness,
… with all of his soul, all of his life and being,
… with all of his mind, all of his words of how we are to live and love,
… with all of his strength, with his courage to die for us.
Yes, the words of love are easy to say, but doing them, making them real, putting flesh on these words, incarnating these words, just as God became enfleshed in his Word, became incarnated in his Word – this is the difficult part. Yes, becoming an embodiment of the commandment, living out the commandment, is much more difficult than merely reciting the words of the commandment, the commandment of love. The question really becomes: just how do you show that you, indeed, really love someone?
One way to show our love for another is to spend time with that person. So, if I am to love myself and others in the same manner, and if I am to love God, should I not spend time with myself and with God, as well as with others? Should I not find time for just “being” and not for merely “doing?” Time for being with God. Time for prayer and quietness with him.
I show my love for another by speaking and listening to the one I love. Perhaps, I need to speak and listen more to my own self. Do I try to counsel myself and listen to my own counsel? Or do I under-value myself? Do I tell myself I am beyond my own help? Do I tell myself I am beyond the help of the God who speaks to me, whom I hear when I take the time to listen?
We show our love for others by affirming the goodness we see in them. However, do we affirm ourselves? Do we take the time to tell ourselves we are worthwhile, we are lovable? Do we think God does not need our affirmation? Do we take time to praise God, to tell God how good he is to us and for us.
You show your love for another person by helping that person and allowing that person to help you. However, do you try to help yourself or do you wallow in your misery? Do you allow others to help you or do you try to do everything by yourself? If you show your love for others by helping them, can you, also, show your love to God by helping him? And how do we help God? Perhaps, by helping others, by helping do the work of God. And, perhaps, by allowing God to help us, by not rejecting his aid, by not believing everything depends entirely upon us, alone.
We show our love for others by celebrating with them, playing and having fun with them, enjoying life together. And, so. the question is: do we allow ourselves to celebrate, to have fun, or is everything in life to be taken seriously? Do we love God by allowing God to be humorous? Do we see the fun in the unexpected and amusing happenings God brings into our life. Do we celebrate our pleasure with God? Do we celebrate God?
I show my love for others by giving them my care, by helping them to heal, by protecting them from harm, by forgiving them when they have caused me pain. These are ways I show my love for others. But what about myself and my God? Do I give myself the care I should? Do I take care of my own health with a proper diet, with medical examinations, with moderate drinking, with giving up harmful habits? Do I forgive myself when I bring about my own pain? Do I forgive God when I feel my pain is brought about by him?
Yes, there are many ways to show we love someone. We do it with our time, our communication, our affirmation. We do it with our helping and healing, with our celebrating. We do it with our forgiveness.
Once more, we are reminded: love begins with the need for each of us to love my own self. Unless I truly love myself and am compassionate with my own self, I cannot love others as myself. Unless you truly love yourself and others, you cannot love God as completely as God demands:
… with all your heart, your feelings and passion;
… with all your mind, your intelligence and intellect;
… with all your soul, your life and entire existence;
… with all your strength, with nothing held back, with no reservations.
Yes, each one of us is called to love one another as God loves each and every one of us: unconditionally.
Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time; October 30, 1988; November 5, 2000 (revised)
Deut 6: 2-6; Heb 7:23-28; Mk 12:28b-34