The 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 31, 2021

Mark 12:28b–34

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” 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. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, ‘He is One and there is no other than he.’ And ‘to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself’ is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

“Which is the first of all the commandments?”  This is a good question for us to ask ourselves.  We can look back at different stages in our past and think about what was most important to us in those times.  Was it getting ahead at all costs, whether in school, sports, or our jobs?  Was it becoming popular or socially important?  Did we ever seek power over others?  Perhaps for some folks most important of all was simply surviving from day to day, due to the dire effects of poverty or health problems.  We can look at ourselves today and ask that same question.

When the Lord declares that the first commandment is the love of God “with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength”, God himself tells us that beyond all other considerations, this is what is most important.  The Gospels tell us of how the Lord rejected the temptations of power, riches, and self-promotion in order to serve his Father.  Despite poverty, fatigue, and threats of death, the Lord loved and obeyed his Father with an unremitting passion and with zeal for his Father’s glory.  We see this love of God with all one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength in the life of St. Paul: “Thrice was I beaten with rods: once I was stoned: thrice I suffered shipwreck: a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea. In journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own nation, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils from false brethren: 

In labor and painfulness, in much sleeplessness, in hunger and thirst, in fasting often, in cold and nakedness: Besides those things which are without: my daily instance, my care for all the churches” (2 Corinthians 11, 25-28).  He endured all of this in his missionary work “for to me, to live is Christ: and to die is gain” (Philippians 1, 21).  And in his work for the churches he shows how the first and second commandments are linked: the love of God entails the love of the neighbor whom God has made.

Not all are called to work and to suffer as Paul did, but all of us are called to love as he did.  To grow in the love of God we must spend time with him.  We can do this through prayer, preferably before the Blessed Sacrament, looking upon him and realizing that he became as that for us.  When we pray, opening our hearts to him so that they may pour out to him and so that we may receive him within them, we begin to know who he is and how much we are loved by him.  Performing good works out of our desire to please him is also necessary, because one who seeks to grow in love gives presents to the one he loves.  Reading the Holy Scriptures is important too because they are the love letters of the Holy Spirit to us.

The greater our love for God, the greater our love for our spouses, parents, children, and friends.  Our love for God ought to become so great that we can even pray for our enemies and to do good to those who hate us.