A Reflection on the Readings for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, November 3, 2024
Our first reading is from the Book of Deuteronomy, the fifth and final book of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament). Deuteronomy means “second law,” but the book is not understood as presenting a new or second law but, rather, a partial repetition and expansion of the law found earlier in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers.
We hear Moses imploring the people to fear the Lord and to keep all the commandments he has given them. Doing so will ensure prosperity and long life on the land that they are to inherit. Our reading contains what is often referred to as the keynote of the Book of Deuteronomy, The Shema Prayer, in verses 4, 5, & 6 of chapter 6, beginning with the words: “Hear, O Israel!” The name of this prayer comes from the Hebrew words it begins with: “Shema Yisrael,” meaning listen, Israel, and pay attention. And what the people are to hear and understand is that the Lord is God, the Lord is one, and you are to love the Lord, your God, with every fiber of your being.
Observant Jews consider the Shema Prayer to be the most important part of their prayer life and recite it twice a day as part of their morning and evening prayer services, traditionally, the Shema is to be the last words they say before retiring each night and the first they say when arising.
We will hear the Shema again in our gospel this week and Jesus will expand upon it in reciting this prayer. But the essence of our first reading is simply, love of God. Loving and honoring God by keeping his commandments will be rewarded with prosperity and long life in the Promised Land. For the ancient Israelites who heard these words from Moses, the Promised Land meant what would eventually become the land of Israel; for us today, the Promised Land is not terrestrial, it is heavenly.
Our second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews is a continuation of our second reading from last Sunday wherein the author is drawing the distinction between the Levitical priesthood that the Jews were familiar with and Christ’s priesthood, which is entirely different. As mentioned last week, the Levitical priesthood was hereditary, allowing only men of the tribe of Levi to serve as priests. Jesus would not qualify under Jewish law as he was of the tribe of Judah. But in Psalm 110, we see that God swore an oath through King David that his descendent (the Messiah) would have a priesthood that originated before the time of the law or the Levitical priesthood; a priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek (see Psalm 110, Genesis 14 and Mark 12:35-37). Melchizedek is an enigmatic figure in scripture. We find him only in chapter 14 of Genesis, in Psalm 110, and in chapter 7 of the Letter to the Hebrews. If we review Genesis 14, we will see Melchizedek referred to as “a priest of God most high. “This is long before the Exodus and the Law that was given to the people by Moses during that Exodus and long before the establishment of the nation of Israel in the Promised Land and the establishment of the Levitical priesthood. Therefore, there is a priesthood that existed before the Levitical priesthood, a priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek, and Jesus is the priest of that order.
In our gospel passage, a scribe asked Jesus which commandment in the law is the greatest and Jesus responded by reciting the Shema Prayer as found in our first reading. But he added an additional commandment citing Leviticus 19:18: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” In doing so, Jesus summed up the entire law in the concept of love. If we truly love God and truly love our neighbors, we cannot vary from God’s law or offend God.
But loving our neighbors is very difficult for us. How can we love someone who wishes us harm or slanders us? The concept of love that we have in mind is not necessarily the same concept of love that is meant in this passage. The gospels were written in Greek and there are several words for “love” in the Greek language that do not have the same connotation. For example, there is Eros, which refers to the love shared by spouses and has a sexual connotation; there is Philios, which refers to the love we have for our closest friends. These Greek words describe two very different emotions, but we generally translate them simply as “love.” But our gospel passage refers to agape love, which is the charity and unconditional goodwill that we are required to extend to all others; the charity that requires us to feed our enemies if they are hungry and clothe them if they are naked. Agape is the universal, unconditional love and charity that God has for us and that we are to have for each other. Agape love does not require me to like the person who wishes to harm or slander me, but it does forbid my wishing harm to that person.
The scribe understood Jesus’ answer to his question, and Jesus told him he was not far from the kingdom of God. Loving God isn’t difficult for most of us, but extending the charity and goodwill required of us to others can be challenging. But, we know what’s expected of us if we want to hear: “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
Graphic: ©LPi
