Today's Readings
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 81:6c–8a, 8bc–9, 10–11ab, 14 and 17
He made it a decree in Joseph,
when he went out over the land of Egypt.
I hear a voice I had not known: “I relieved your shoulder of the burden;
your hands were freed from the basket. In distress you called, and I rescued you;
I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah Hear, O my people, while I admonish you;
O Israel, if you would but listen to me! There shall be no strange god among you;
you shall not bow down to a foreign god. I am the Lord your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. O that my people would listen to me,
that Israel would walk in my ways! I would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”
Gospel
Mark 12:28–34
One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and 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.” Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.
Daily Reflection
By Bishop Robert Barron
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus sums up the laws of love. It was a common practice in Jesus’s time to ask a rabbi to identify the central precept of the law. Thus Jesus is asked, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” He gave his famous answer: “‘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.’ All of religion is finally about awakening the deepest desire of the heart and directing it toward God; it is about the ordering of love toward that which is most worthy of love. But this love of God carries, Jesus says, as a necessary implication, compassion for one’s fellow human beings. Why are the two commandments so tightly linked? Because of who Jesus is. Christ is not simply a human being, and he is not simply God; rather, he is the God-man, the one in whose person divinity and humanity meet. Therefore, it is impossible to love him as God without loving the humanity that he has embraced. The greatest commandment is, therefore, an indirect Christology.
Bishop Robert Barron
Founder, Word on Fire
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.