October 31, 2021

Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle B

Deuteronomy 6:2-6; Hebrews 7:23-28; Mark 12:28-34

The famous baseball player and manager Yogi Berra, who was also a Catholic, is reported to have once said, "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is." And as with all great witticisms there is embedded in it a profound truth, and this one touches on one of the issues that we all face in life: it is so easy to love both God and neighbor in theory, and it is quite another to do so in practice. It is easy to love God when we are successful, but many turn from God if they have a major setback in life. People are easy to love when they do us a good turn, but we all know how quickly our minds can turn to scorn, envy, or fear if they don't conform to our desires. This is summed up in the famous saying, another witticism: “I love humanity; it's people I can't stand.”

The first reading from Deuteronomy is the summation of Jewish law, the Sh’ma Yisrael, a concise synopsis of the aim of the 613 laws given through Moses to the Israelites which governed all aspects of Jewish life. This verse from the Torah was so important that some orthodox Jews to this day wear printed copies of it on their foreheads in little boxes and wrapped around their wrists when they do daily prayers. They recite it as an evening prayer every day. It is therefore that quintessential prayer that defines their religion, similar to the Our Father, which is also a prayer we Christians learn from childhood to say as a bedtime prayer. To live up to it – or maybe better said, to strive to live up to it – defines what it means to be a Jew.

The Gospel reading relates the episode where a scribe is asking Jesus about the law and His knowledge of it. And as we expect, Jesus can recite verbatim the Sh'ma, although almost any Jew could probably have done this, same as most Catholics can recite the Our Father. So what is remarkable about the Gospel is not what Jesus knew but what information He added. The scribe asked what was the first commandment. But Jesus gave the first and second commandment. So we need to ask ourselves, why did He do this – what is its importance?

I think the answer is fairly plain. Love of God, the first commandment, and love of neighbor, the second, are not only of similar importance, but they are cut from one bolt of cloth, two sides of the same coin. How can one love God and not love His creation? As Saint Francis de Sales said, “This is why divine Love not only repeatedly commands us to love our neighbors, but also itself produces this love and pours it out into our hearts, since they bear its own image and likeness; for just as we are the image of God, so our holy love for one another is the true image of our heavenly love for God.” [https://liturgy.slu.edu/31OrdB103121/theword_journey.html]

So why do we find this so difficult? We are clearly called, in today's Gospel as well as many other scripture passages, to love not just our friends and family, but all people, including strangers, and even our enemies. Maybe one way we can do this is to look at the words that we use. Jesus used the term neighbor. When He used the term, He wasn't using it in the sense that we are to love those who live in the house next to ours on the left. He of course uses the terms to include all other people, all other beings created, like us, by God. If we use this same term that Christ uses, maybe we can be more like Him. It is easy to not pay attention to a “dead beat” on the street, but it's harder to ignore a neighbor in need. It is easy to dismiss the views of a “crackpot” who obviously doesn't understand the world as we do, but maybe we would give that person a better hearing if we considered them to be our neighbor. Maybe that person in the other department at work can be a real “pill,” but maybe if we look at him or her as our neighbor we could have more patience.

This week we have on Monday the solemnity of All Saints and then on Tuesday the commemoration of All Souls. At the end of the Gospel, Jesus tells the scribe that he has a great understanding – he understands the importance of the morality of love over the mechanical form of ritual practices of the law – and therefore, the scribe is "not far from the kingdom of God." [Mark 12:34 NAB] As we celebrate All Saints, we look to them as exemplars since they too also have this great understanding. A few weeks ago here at Saint James the young people being confirmed all took a name of a saint as part of the process, a saint that they admired and wished to be like, as I assume most people here today did when we were confirmed. Do we live up to the example set by these saints for love of God and neighbor? What changes can we make to be more like them so as to live up to the Sh’ma in our lives?

The love of God and neighbor are also themes that should guide us this week as we continue to participate in the Synod. The Diocese of Charleston has begun the process with a survey that asks questions that try to understand how well the various parishes do in responding to the needs of people. As we try to build a better Church, we must understand what the needs are of our neighbors and respond accordingly. If we approach our input into the synod as a consumer of religious services, that is to say what can the Church do to better meet my own needs, we are not in sync with the commandments that Christ just enjoined on us. Of course our individual needs are important as well, but if we don't look out for our neighbor who is different, we turn our Church into just another business producing religious services to a paying clientele. To thrive into the future, our Church needs to be more than this. To obey the will of God our Church must be more than this. To be the true Body of Christ we cannot be just this.

As we continue with the Mass, let us pray for the wisdom of the scribe, so that we too might not be far from the kingdom of God. Let us turn the love of God that is the Eucharist into the love of neighbor that is Communion as we approach the altar together. Let us put our theological principles into practice as we leave from here, so that they are not just a vague theoretical love of humanity but a specific and active practice of love for all people that we encounter.