SHEMA -31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle B)

Homily for the 31^st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle B)

Based on Mk 12:28-34 (Gospel), Dt 6:2-6 (First Reading) and Heb 7:23-28 (Second Reading)

From the Series: “Reflections and Teachings of the Desert”

SHEMA

‘‘Listen, O Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord!’ (Mk 12:29)

The Gospel reading for this 31^st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle B) is Mk 12:28-34.

Verse 28 says: One of the scribes who had listened to them debating and observed how well Jesus had answered them, now came up and put this question to him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?”

Parallel texts are:

1.       Mt 22:34-40 - But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they got together (v. 34) and, to disconcert him, one of them put a question  (v. 35), “Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?” V. 36) Jesus said, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind (v.37). This is the greatest and the first commandment (v.38). The second resembles it: You must love your neighbor as yourself (v. 39) On these two commandments  hang the whole law and the prophets also (v. 40).

2.       Lk 10:25-28 - There was a lawyer who, to disconcert him,  stood up and said to him, ‘Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ (v. 25) He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ (v. 26) He replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.’ (v. 27) ‘You have answered right’ said Jesus, ‘do this and life is yours.’ (v. 28).

Verse 29 says: Jesus replied, “The first is this: ‘Listen, O Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord!

Parallel text is Dt 6:4-5 that says: Listen, Israel: Yahweh our God, is the one Yahweh. b(v. 4) You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength^c (v. 5). Footnote ^b  says “Another translation  sometimes adopted ‘Listen, Israel: Yahweh is our God, Yahweh alone’, but it is more likely that we have here a declaration of monotheistic faith. This verse was later to be used as the opening words of the Shema, a prayer still central to Jewish piety”; and Footnote  ^c  says “This love, echo God’s love for his people, 4:37; 7:8; 10:15, embraces the fear of God, the duty of service and the observance of precepts, 6:13; 10:12-13; 11:1; cf. 30:2. Outside Dt there is no explicit command to love God but its equivalent is found in 2 K 23:25 and Ho 6:6. Though the command does not spear, the Psalms and the prophetic books, especially Hosea and Jeremiah, are full of the love if God. Jesus, quoting Dt 6:5, lays down as the greatest commandment of all, Mt 22:37p; with it goes fear, the fear of a son, not of a salve, 1 Jn 4:18.”

Verses 30 and 31 say: And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: You must love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.’

Parallel text is Lv 19:18 that says: You must not exact vengeance, nor must you bear a grudge against the children of your own people. You must love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.

Verse 32 says: The scribe said to him, ‘Well spoken, Master; what you  said is true, that he is one and there is no other.’

Parallel texts are:

1.       Dt 4:35 - This he showed you so that you might know that Yahweh is God indeed and that  there is no other.

2.       Dt 6:4 - Listen, Israel: Yahweh our God, is the one Yahweh.^b  Footnote ^b  says “Another translation  sometimes adopted ‘Listen, Israel: Yahweh is our God, Yahweh alone’, but it is more likely that we have here a declaration of monotheistic faith. This verse was later to be used as the opening words of the Shema, a prayer still central to Jewish piety.”

Verse 33 says: To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, this is far more important than any holocaust or sacrifice.’

Parallel texts are:

1.      1 S 15:22 - But Samuel replied:^d ‘Is the pleasure of Yahweh in holocausts and sacrifices or in obedience to the voice of Yahweh? Yes, obedience is better than sacrifice, submissiveness better that the fat of rams. Rebellion is a sin of sorcery, presumption a crime of terpahim.^e Footnote  ^d  says “Samuel does not condemn sacrificial practice as a whole, but obedience of the heart is what pleases God, not mere ritual. To practice the second against God’s will is to do homage to something that is nor God, to be guilty of idolatry, a crime here suggested by ‘sorcery’ and the mention of teraphim, tutelary idols of houses and property, Gn 31:19,30f; 1 S 19:13. On consulting teraphim, cf. Ez 21:21”; and Footnote ^e  says ‘a crime of teraphim’ Symmachus (Symmachus the Ebionite (late 2nd century), author of one of the Greek versions of the Old Testament).”

2.      Ps 40:6-8 - You, who wanted no sacrifice or oblation, opened^b my ear, you asked no holocaust or sacrifice for sin; (v. 6) then I said, ‘Here I am! I am coming!’ In the scroll of the book am I not commanded (v. 7) to obey your will?^c My God, I have always loved your Law from the depths of my being. Footnote  ^b  says “Lit ‘dug out’. God sees to it that his servant knows his will, cf. Is 50:5. A Greek variant, ‘you have fashioned a body for me, was interpreted messianically and applied to Christ, Heb 10:5”; and Footnote ^c says “Obedience is better than sacrifice, 1 S 15:22. The ‘book’ is the Law, ‘am I not commanded’ lit. ‘it is laid down for me’, the Jewish textual tradition punctuates differently, so also Greek which translates ‘it is written of me’, suggesting a messianic meaning.”

3.       Am 5:21  - I hate and despise your feasts, I take no pleasure in your solemn festivals.

Verse 34 says: Jesus, seeing how wisely he had spoken, said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to question him anymore.

Parallel texts are:

1.       Mt 22:46 - Not one could think of anything to say in reply,^g and from that day on no one dared to ask him any further questions. Footnote ^g says “The appropriate answer would have been that though tracing his human origin back to David, cf. 1:3-11, there would be something divine about the Messiah to set him above David.”

2.       Lk 20:40 - Because they would not dare to ask him any more questions.

The First Reading is from Dt 6:2-6.

Verse 2 says: Thus, if you fear Yahweh your God all the days of your life and if you keep all his laws and commandments which I lay on you, you live a long life, you and your son and your grandson.

Parallel text is Ex 15:26 that says: Then he said, ‘If you listen carefully to the voice of Yahweh your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commandments and keep his statutes, I shall inflict on you none of the evils that I inflicted on the Egyptians, for it is I, Yahweh, who give you healing’.

Verse 3 says: Listen then, Israel,  keep and observe what will make you prosper and give you great increase, as Yahweh the God of your fathers has promised you, giving you a land where milk and honey flow.

Parallel texts are:

1.       Lk 11:28 - But he replied, ‘Still happier those who hear the word of God and keep it!’

2.       Ps 37:31…with the Law of his God in his heart his steps can never falter.

3.       Jr 11:5 - To confirm the oath I swore to your fathers, that I would give them a land where milk and honey flow-as still does  today. I replied, ’Yahweh, I will.”

Verse 4 says: Listen, Israel: Yahweh our God, is the one Yahweh.^b Footnote ^b  says  “Another translation  sometimes adopted ‘Listen, Israel: Yahweh is our God, Yahweh alone’, but it is more likely that we have here a declaration of monotheistic faith. This verse was later to be used as the opening words of the Shema, a prayer still central to Jewish piety.”

Parallel texts are:

1.       Dt 13:4 ….you are not listen to the words of that prophet or to the dreams of that dreamer. Yahweh your God is testing you to know if you love Yahweh your God with all your heart and all your soul.

2.       Dt 10:12 - And now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God ask of you? Only this: to fear Yahweh your God, to follow all his ways, to love and serve Yahweh your God, with your whole heart and with your whole soul…

3.       Ne 9:6 - You are the LORD, you alone; You made the heavens, the highest heavens and all their host, The earth and all that is upon it, the seas and all that is in them. To all of them you give life, the heavenly hosts bow down before you.

4.       Mt 22:37 - Jesus said, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind (v. 37).

Verses 5 and 6 say: You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.^c Let these words which I urge on you today be written I your heart.

Footnote ^c  says “This love, echo God’s love for his people, 4:37; 7:8; 10:15, embraces the fear of God, the duty of service and the observance of precepts, 6:13; 10:12-13; 11:1; cf. 30:2. Outside Dt there is no explicit command to love God but its equivalent is found in 2 K 23:25 and Ho 6:6. Though the command does not spear, the Psalms and the prophetic books, especially Hosea and Jeremiah, are full of the love if God. Jesus, quoting Dt 6:5, lays down as the greatest commandment of all, Mt 22:37p; with it goes fear, the fear of a son, not of a salve, 1 Jn 4:18.”

Parallel texts for verse 6 are:

1.       Pr 3:3 - Let kindliness and loyalty never leave you; tie them round your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.

2.       Sg 8:6 - Set me like a seal on your heart, like  a seal^h upon your arm; For Love is strong as Death, jealousyⁱ relentless as Sheol^j. The flash of it is a flash of fire, a flame of Yahweh himself. Footnote ^h says “The seal, attesting the wishes of its owner, here symbolizes the wishes of Yahweh, i.e., the Law”; Footnote  ⁱ  says “Yahweh is a ‘jealous’ God, Ex 34:14; Dt 4:24, etc.”. and Footnote ^j  says “Sheol, Nb 16:33+, is a personification here and more or less equivalent  to Death, cf. Pr 27:20; 30:16.”

The Second Reading is Heb 7:23-28.

Verses 23 and 24 say: Then there used to be a great number of those other priests, because death put an end to each of them; but this one, because he remains forever, can never lose the priesthood.

Parallel texts are:

1.       Heb 9:24 - It is not as though Christ had entered into a man-made sanctuary which was only modeled on the real one; but it was heaven itself, so that he could appear in the actual presence of  God on our behalf (v. 24).

2.       Heb 10:19 - In other words, brothers, through the blood of Jesus we have to enter the sanctuary^a Footnote ^a  says “Only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, and he could do so only once a year. From now on, all who are faithful will be able to reach God through Christ, cf. 4:16; 7:19,25; 10:1; Rm 5:2; Ep 1:4; 2:18; 3:12; Col. 1:22.”

3.       Nb 18:1 - Then Yahweh said to Aaron: You and your sons, and your whole family^a shall bear the burden of transgressions against the sanctuary. You and your sons with you shall bear the burden of the transgressions of your priesthood. Footnote ^a  says “i.e Levi. The Levites (cf. 3:5-10) are here associated with the Aaronites in their ministry of atonement for the people (cf. Lv 18:16) but only as assistants.”

Verses 25 and 26 say: It follows then that his power to save is utterly certain, since he is living for ever to intercede for all who come to God through him. To suit us, the ideal high priest would have to be holy, innocent, uncontaminated, beyond the influence of sinners, and raised up above the heavens.

Parallel texts for verse 26 are:

1.       Heb 3:1 - That is why all you who are holy brothers, and have had the same heavenly call should turn your mind to Jesus, the apostle and high priest^a of our religion. Footnote ^a  says “Christ is both apostle, i.e. someone ‘sent’ by God to the human race, cf. Jn 3:17,34; 5:36; 9:7; Rm 1:1+; 8:3; Ga 4:4; and high priest representing the human race before God, cf. 2:17; 4:14; 5:5,10; 6:20; 7:26; 8:1; 9:11; 10:21”.

2.       Ex 29:1 - This is the ritual you must use for them when you consecrate them to serve me in the priesthood. Take one young bull and two rams without blemish...

3.       1 Jn 3:5-6 - Now you know that he appeared in order to abolish sin,^c and that in him there is no sin (v. 5);anyone who lives in God does not sin^.d and anyone who sins has never seen him or known him. Footnote ^c  says “Lit. ‘sins’; var. ‘our sins’’; Footnote ^d  says “Because God, living in the Christian, is present with all his divine power for life. John is talking in general terms, ignoring people’s momentary lapses, 1:7-2:1; all he is giving is an schematic contrast between two worlds, cf. 3:9; 5:18.”

4.       Heb 9:25-28 - And he does not have to offer himself again and again, like the high priest going into the sanctuary enters year after year with the blood that is not his own (v. 25), or else he would have had to suffer over and over again since the world began. Instead of that, he has made his appearance once and for all,^k now at the end of the last age, to do away with sin by sacrificing himself (v. 26). Since men only die once, and after that comes judgment (v. 27), so Christ, too, offers himself only once to take the faults of many on himself, and when he appears a second time, it will not be to deal with sin but to reward with salvation those who are waiting for him.^l (v. 28). Footnote ^k  says “The sacrifice of Christ is unique, 7:27+: being offered  ‘at the end of the last age’ (lit. ‘at the completion of the last aeons’), i.e.,  the end of human history, there is no need for it to be repeated, since it wipe out sin, not with non-human (‘alien’) blood, but with Christ’s own blood, cf. 9:12-14, so its effect is unconditional.”; and  Footnote ^l says “The first coming of Christ gave him a direct relationship to sin, Rm. 8:3; 2 Cor. 5:21. The second coming of Christ will, since the redemption is complete, have no connection with sin.  Christians wait for this parousia that will take place at the Judgment, 1 Co. 1:8+; Rm. 2:6+.”

Verse 27 says: One who would  not need, to offer sacrifice every day, as the other high priests do for their own sins and then for those of the people, because he has done this once and for all^g by offering himself. Footnote ^g  says “The one and only sacrifice of Christ is the center of salvation history, Ac 1:7+. It closes a long epoch of preparations, 1:1f, cf. Rm 10:4; it occurs ‘at the appointed time’, Ga. 4:4+, Rm 3:26+, and it begins the eschatological epoch. Though the Last Day, 1 Co 1:8+; Rm 2:6+, will follow, 2 Co 6:2+, only at some unspecified, 1 Th 5:1+, time in the future; salvation for the human race has been in essence certain from the moment when, in the person of Christ, it died to sin and rose to live again. Heb makes a special point of how the whole of this hope flow from the absolute, unique, unrepeatable sacrifice of Christ, 7:27; 9:12,26,28; 10:10; cf. Rm 6:10; 1 P 3:18. Being unrepeatable, 10:12-14, this sacrifice is different  from all others in the O.T. that had to be repeated again and again because they were unable to actually to save anyone.”

Parallel texts are:

1.       Heb 5:3 - That is why he has to make sin offerings for himself as well as for his people.

2.       Heb 9:7,12…but the second tent is entered only once a year, and then only by the high priest, who must go in by himself and take the blood to offer for his own fault and the people’s (v. 7)… and he has entered the sanctuary^f once and for all, taking with him not the blood of goats and bull calves, but his own blood, having won an eternal redemption for us (v. 12). Footnote ^f says “In his ascension Christ ‘passed through’ all the successive heavenly spheres that form the ‘Holy Place’ of the celestial Tent, and so came into the presence of God in the celestial “Holy of Holies’.”

3.       Heb 10:11-14 - All the priests stand at their duties every  day, offering over and over again the same sacrifices which are quite incapable of taking sins away (v. 11) He, on the other hand, has offered one single sacrifice for sins, and taking his place forever, at the right hand of God (v. 12), where he is now waiting until his enemies are made into a footstool for him (v.13). By virtue of this one offering, he has achieved the eternal perfection of all whom he is sanctifying (v, 14).

4.       Rm 6:10 - When he died, he died, once and for all, to sin,^e so his life now is life with God. Footnote  ^e  says “Christ was sinless, 2 Cor. 5:21, but having a physical body like our own, Rm. 8:3, he belonged to the order of sin; when he became ‘spiritual’, 1 Co. 15:45-46, he belonged only to the divine order. Similarly, though the Christian remains in the flesh for a time, he already lives in the spirit.”

Verse 28 says: The law appoints high priests who are men subject to weakness; but the promise on oath, which came after the law,^h appointed the Son, who is made perfect forever. Footnote ^h  says “Cf. the promise made before the Law was given, Gn 3:17.”

Parallel text is Heb 5:9 that says: But having been made perfect,^d he became for all who obey him the source of eternal salvation… Footnote ^d  says “Having totally succeeded in his task of being priest and victim.”