Hear O Israel

Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 152
Reading 1: DT 6:2-6
Reading 2: HEB 7:23-28
Gospel: MK 12:28B-34

"You are not far from the kingdom of God."  Jesus said to the scribe and with this declaration he gave us a good yardstick to measure how close or how far we are.

​Their discussion centered on the Shema which is an affirmation of Judaism and a declaration of faith in one God. The obligation to recite the Shema is separate from the obligation to pray and a Jew is obligated to say Shema in the morning and at night (Deut. 6:7).

Thus the scribe asked Jesus what was the first of all commandments and Jesus replied, "The first is this: 
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 then he bookended it with a second taken from Lv 19:18:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these." 

And there is our yardstick: love of God and love of neighbor.

We show our love of God in loving our neighbor and we love our neighbor because we love God. We cannot say we love God and hate our neighbor. 

1 John: 20-21 If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

So we can say "Lord, Lord...Jesus, Jesus" all we want but unless our heart is turned toward our neighbor it will be for nothing and don't ask "who is my neighbor?" Jesus has heard that one before.

How do you measure up? What is your attitude toward the poor, the marginalized, people who don't look, speak or even pray like you do?

I know I have work to do myself but Lord by your grace I can do it. May the Lord say that we "are not far from the kingdom of God.

​Hear, O Israel!

Peace