Homilies

Back to Homilies menu

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Mark 12:29 = Deuteronomy 6:4

Mark’s version of the Great Commandment is the earliest one, if you accept the conventional wisdom that Mark was the first of the gospels to be written.  It differs from its Matthean and Lukan parallels in two striking ways.  First of all, it is the only one of the three to include the Shema, Israel’s affirmation of monotheism. 
            The Midrash and the Talmud state:

At the time Jacob, our father, departed from this world, he gathered together his twelve sons and said to them: “Perhaps there is a doubt in your heart about the existence and essence of the oneness of the Holy One, Blessed be He.” They said to him in unison: “Hear, O Israel, our Father, just as your heart is complete and one with the Holy One, Blessed be He, so in our hearts there is total accord that the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Upon hearing these beautiful, true sentiments, Jacob’s doubts were assuaged and he declared, “Blessed be the name of the Glorious Majesty of God forever and ever.” he name of the Glorious Majesty of God forever and ever.”

            The Shema is the last statement of a Jewish person facing immediate death.  Even in death he thinks more of the people he is leaving behind than of himself.  As he passes from this world, he comforts, encourages, and uplifts the holy people of God: Shema!  Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
            The other peculiarity of this Marcan version is that after Jesus has finished speaking, his interlocutor, identified at the beginning as “one of the scribes” (v. 28), declares, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said…..” (v. 32),  I have been in that situation myself, when after having said something in public, someone in the audience responds: “What you really mean is….” 
            Jesus does not respond the way I might respond.  Rather, “when he saw that the scribe had answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God ’”
(v. 34).
            The scribes usually appear in the Gospels as Jesus’ adversaries.  This is the only place where Jesus and a scribe seem to be on the same page.  This is certainly a message for our turbulent times, when we need, more than ever, to find something we can agree on with those we assume to be against us. 
            During the 16th century Reformation, when feelings about religion ran as high as they do today, Ignatius of Loyola had this advice for those making his Spiritual Exercises:

Every good Christian ought to be more willing to give a good interpretation to the statement of another than to condemn it as false.

            This is advice which need not be limited to the sphere of religion.  If we approached others in this spirit, Jesus’ admonition, “Love thy neighbor as thyself” (v. 31 = Leviticus 19:18), might be easier to practice.          

October 7, 2007

back to top