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all, commandments, love your neighbor as yourself, Mark, social distancing, The Sophia Center for Spirituality
Today in Mark’s gospel we find one of the most important questions ever asked, for which we get a double answer that really is a single if we know how to see. It’s the long answer to what we have been given elsewhere. Today it seems so important to go that extra mile; it isn’t a time for shorthand. So consider every clause — even every word of the answer to “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus begins to answer with a declaration of who this God is to whom we owe allegiance and then with what is contained in our covenant toward this God. Waking up the audience with an imperative, Jesus begins:
Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!
What follows is a list of all the superlatives that speak of the totality of what is expected: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. (We might wish to ask ourselves in this time of challenge: Am I ready to give up all activity that might pass along the infection running rampant now in our country and the world? Is there anything that I want to do today that will be dangerous to others or myself? )
The second part of this “great commandment” (because we really cannot do one without the other) is: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Clearly that means today: Don’t go out anywhere that you might encounter another person unless it is necessary for the good of the whole.
How close are we to following the command contained in this gospel reading? Can we see that what we do or don’t do for God is also the way we love one another? This is perhaps the most important work of this day. Let us be about loving.
From the mouth of Moses to the gospel of Mark the Scriptures repeat the same message about how we are to live. We hear it today, not in a long diatribe but rather a brief directive about love. When asked what is the first and greatest commandment, we can all likely reply – at least with the short form of “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.” The deep impact of what that effort calls out from us, however, is in the almost staccato list of capacities that follows. We are to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength. In other words: Give it all you’ve got!
One of the interesting facets for me of this blogging activity is the ability to track not only numbers of “hits” but also where readers come from. The numbers range usually somewhere between 20 and 40 readers in a day and generally the majority are residents of the United States. Last fall there was a period where – for a few weeks – numbers were consistently between 60 and 80 each day before they settled again into the 40 – 50 range. It all seems random to me but interesting nonetheless.
Today’s gospel (MK 1:29-39) finds Jesus very busy. The text recounts his ministry in this manner: he goes to synagogue (likely to preach) with some of his disciples, then to the house of Simon Peter whose mother-in-law lies ill. He heals her, eats a meal, maybe has a little respite and then spends what appears to be a very long time healing all those who came to him with various maladies. Hoping for a little time to himself and God, he gets up before dawn the next day and goes to a deserted place to pray where, hopefully he got a brief chance to recharge. Nevertheless, he was interrupted by his friends who found him and said, “Everyone is looking for you.” His response sounds immediate and affirmative. “Let us go on to nearby villages,” he said, “that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.”
Our first real frost today has its effect on arthritic limbs even for those of us who feel it only in tiny places (one finger perhaps). It seems an appropriate metaphor for our state of heart after seeing the 26 faces of those killed in church on Sunday in a small town in Texas, victims from 17 months to 77 years old. “Frozen with shock,” disbelief and overwhelming sadness at this latest outrageous act, I read again today from Paul’s letter to the Romans. Whatever other commandments there may be are summed up, Paul says, in this saying, namely, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law. (ROM 13:10)
My first thought after reading the lectionary texts for today was that the fifth chapter of Matthew’s gospel is worth a whole life of reflection. It isn’t only the part that we know as the Beatitudes that teaches us how to live; the whole chapter is full of deeply meaningful concepts. It is clear from this preaching of Jesus that he did, indeed, come not to destroy the Mosaic Law but to fulfill it. When we read, “You have heard it said…” it’s clear that Jesus is specifying what was right action in earlier times and that he was urging his listeners to more, to go beyond what was an earlier norm to a deeper way of living. The example is clear today.
