9th Week of Ordinary Time, Thursday, 6-8-23, Year A
Readings: First Reading Tb 6:10-11; 7:1bcde, 9-17; 8:4-9a; Ps 128:1-5; Gospel Mk 12:28-34
Theme: Simplicity of The Golden Rule
There are many times when I am amazed at the simplicity of Jesus’s answers in the Bible. So many times, the scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees ask Jesus complicated questions only to be given a simple answer that turns them on their heads. When they tried to ensnare Him by asking Him if they should pay the census tax or not, Jesus replies with a simple answer, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs God.”1 Simple.
Today’s Gospel reading again shows us the simplicity of Jesus’s answer to what most of us would have considered a complicated question to respond to. Of all the six hundred and some laws the Jews had at that time; how could Jesus pick out the one that is first among all the commandments?
When we think about it, Jesus’s response is exactly in line with the very first of the Ten Commandments delivered by God the Father to Moses on Mount Sinai, “I, the Lord, am your God,……You shall not have other gods besides me.”2 Jesus’s commandment to the scribe of “The Lord our God is Lord alone!” is a re-statement of His Father’s commandment to Moses over 1300 years earlier!
What does the first of the Ten Commandments mean and why is it first? The first commandment means that we are to love God with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our minds, and with all our strength. Jesus then goes on to the second commandment that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Why? Because, in keeping with the first commandment, to love God completely, we are then to love our neighbor in a similar way because they were also created in God’s image. To love our neighbor is to love God Himself through His precious creation.
The first three commandments of God are first because they are about our relationship with God Himself. The next seven commandments are about our relationship with each other. Thus, the Golden Rule, God first, in the first three commandments, and our neighbor second in the last seven.
How can we love God without loving our neighbor? We cannot. If we hurt or kill our neighbor, we are hurting and killing God’s graces bestowed on us as His sons and daughters and severing our ties with Him. And who is our neighbor? It is the man in the street, the grieving widow, the handicapped and mentally challenged, our enemy or adversary, those who live a different lifestyle than God’s natural law, and most of all, the infant in the womb of a pregnant mother.
We would be hypocrites if we said we agreed with Jesus’ commandments yet ignored the man in the street, the grieving widow, the handicapped and mentally challenged, our enemy or adversary, those who live a different lifestyle than God’s natural law, and most of all to condone the death of an infant in the womb of a pregnant mother.
In all the complicated questions of our times and in our lives, there is a simple answer. Jesus provides us the most straightforward and uncomplicated answers to the toughest trials and questions in our lives. All we must do is listen to Him, follow His lead, and trust in Him to show us the way to His heavenly kingdom. It is as simple as the Golden Rule, love God with everything you have and your neighbor as you would yourself. Nothing else matters beyond that. Simple.
1 – Mk 12:17
2 – Ex 20:2-3
Saint James Catholic Church 