You Are Not Far...

[A reflection on today's Gospel reading for Mass, Mk. 12.28-34]

A recurrent them in the Gospels is Jesus and the religious authorities being always at loggerheads over interpretation over the Law and the Prophets. Today marks a fairly rare event when a scribe, overhearing yet another dispute between Jesus and other religious authorities, cuts in, asks Jesus a question, and (are you sitting down?) they actually agree upon the answer. In response to this amazing meeting of the minds, Jesus tells this scribe, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God."

The passage in question asks what is the greatest commandment, and Jesus answers directly from Deuteronomy (Deut. 6.4-5) which is well worth repeating:

Hear O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

In keeping with textual variances, Jesus adds "with all your mind" in the list, but that hardly changes the meaning. God's people are enjoined to love their God with everything that they have, without scruple, without hesitation, without stint. Inasmuch as anyone is able (might/strength) the believer expends the energy, the will, and the time to love God.

Why? Well, the evidence is in the entire Scripture that God loves us to the point He came down and took flesh and became one of us and suffered our fate to deliver us from it, and in rising again, break its power. The witness has shown that nothing else could deliver His children from the corruption besetting them, and in love for us He gave Himself for us. Asking us freely to love Him back is not that great an ask from that perspective.

Still, it is a difficult thing. We still live in a world of mischances and accidents and the results of the ill-will of others. Distractions abound. Things that draw us from a love of God surround us and entice us continually. It does well to remind ourselves of God's love and the enjoinder to love Him with every fibre of our being in order to cut through the noise and the distractions and stay close to the Kingdom of God. Our ancestors in the faith, the early Israelites, were encourage to take this reminder and memorize it (bind it on our forehead), make it a part of every action (bind it on our hands), and employ it in their dealings inside and outside their homes (bind it on the doorposts and the gates). We are called, as their spiritual heirs to do the same. As we love God, we take on His values and His priorities: love for those around us, selflessness and goodness, and all the other fruits of His Spirit. Doing so we will not be far indeed from His Kingdom.

[Image of the Good Samaritan used to illustrate the practical application of the love for God as depicted in other tellings of this encounter with the scribe.]