FINDING
GOD AND ONESELF.
THIRTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME. YEAR B.
November 5, 2006.
(First Reading: Deuteronomy 6:2-6) (Second Reading: Hebrews 7:23-28)
(Gospel Reading: Mark 12:28-34)
FINDING GOD AND ONESELF.
There is in this gospel a man, a scribe, who wants to find God so that
he may be able to find himself. The scribe finds the man, Jesus, who
can give him what he is looking for.
The life of the scribe, as the life of most Jews in Jesus' times, was
governed by a complex and even contradictory myriad of laws and commandments.
Such conflicting legalistic system created much confusion in the men
who tried to achieve what the Law was supposed to achieve for them:
Fullness of life(1).
Thus, when the scribe asked Jesus "Which
is the first of all the commandments?", he
wanted to know which is the way to God, the way to reach fullness of
life, he wanted to know what is the reason and the purpose of life.
He wanted to dispel the darkness and confusion that prevented him from
finding God and finding himself.
The answer that comes from Jesus begins with a declaration: "The
Lord our God is Lord alone!" (Mark 12:29).
This declaration is a statement of fact and of faith which emphasizes
that the one and only God has already revealed Himself to his people;
that God's revelation of Himself comes to man as a gift, not as an imposition,
for man is free to accept or reject the gift.
Then Jesus responds to the scribe's specific
question by describing ONE commandment, which is two-fold: Love the
Lord your God and love your neighbor.
1. "You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with
all your mind, and with all your strength"
(Mark 12:30). It means that the totality of man, his resources, his
activities, his institutions are to love God. All of man's spiritual
and material works are to be an expression of his love to God. Nothing
in man's life should have any other purpose than God.
Once man accepts God, a unity is established between the two. This unity
causes man to become the depository of the love that exists in God.
Therefore, the love of man toward God is the image of the love God has
toward man.
2. "You shall
love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:31).
It means that the same love man receives from God, he, man, shall give
to all his fellow human beings. Let us explain: Man truly loves himself
only when the love of God is within him, in his heart, in his soul,
in his mind. (Otherwise, if the love of God is not within man, the love
for himself is only egotism, selfishness). Thus, whenever the love of
God is in man he is able to love his neighbor with the same love he
has for himself.
The love of man for his neighbors is the love which man offers as a
gift - not as an imposition - to all human beings utilizing all societal
institutions. All institutions of collective human life are to be the
means by which man realizes his love for his neighbors. The social,
political, economic, religious, cultural, scientific, technological
aspects of man's societal life are to be the vehicles for man to materialize
his love for his fellow human beings.
Our world tries to destroy the connection man-neighbor-God:
- By proclaiming that the man-God unity is separate from the man-neighbor
unity. The resulting situation is one where man may boast of loving
God, while destroying his neighbor.
- By proclaiming that a man in his private life is not responsible for
what he does in his public life as a member of the social, economic,
political or judicial institutions. The resulting situation is one where
leaders and rulers may consider themselves good Christians in their
private life, while in their public life they initiate wars, pass laws
that make the poor poorer and the rich richer, etc.
- By proclaiming that the connection man-neighbor-God is strictly a
religious issue with no validity in any institution of societal life.
The resulting situation is the exclusion of God from the secular life
of man.
Today, as in the times of Jesus, men of good will are eagerly trying
to find God in order to find themselves, for without God all our human
endeavors and societal institutions are nothing more than just "burnt
offerings". Today, the Lord Jesus teaches us that in order
to find ourselves we must find God and neighbor.
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Footnotes.
(1) The Book of Deuteronomy describes the impact of
the Law on man's life: Throughout the days of your life keep God's "statutes
and commandments which I enjoin on you, and thus have long life... be
careful to observe them, that you may grow and prosper ... and the Lord
will give a land flowing with milk and honey" (Deuteronomy
6:2-3)
