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31st SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Cycle B)

Readings:
Deuteronomy 6:2-6
Psalm 18:2-4, 47, 51
Hebrews 7:23-28
Mark 12:28-34

Abbreviations: NABRE (New American Bible Revised Edition), NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), RSVCE (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The words LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name YHWH (Yahweh).

God reveals His divine plan for humanity in the two Testaments, and that is why we read and relive the events of salvation history in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Church's Universal Catechism teaches that our Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).

The Theme of the Readings: Two Loves That Cannot Be Separated
Yahweh united Himself to Israel in the sacred partnership of the covenant. Out of the nations and peoples of the earth, God chose the Israelites to be His partners in His divine plan for humanity's salvation. In the First Reading, Moses reminds the Israelites of their covenant bond with Yahweh based on loving God with an undivided heart and demonstrated by obedience to the commandments of God's Law that includes not only love of God but also love of one's neighbor (Dt 6:5 and Lev 19:18).

In the Responsorial Psalm, David proclaims his faith in the living God and not in the lifeless images of the false gods in pagan temples. Yahweh gives His anointed king of Israel victory and shows David His continuous covenant love. God demonstrated His faithful covenant love (hesed) by keeping the eternal covenant He promised David and his heirs. It reached its climax in His beloved Son—the Davidic Messiah and King of the eternal Kingdom of the Church on earth and in Heaven, Jesus of Nazareth.

The Second Reading reminds us that God instituted the old covenant sacrificial system to proclaim the Word of God in a liturgy of worship and to restore communion with Him by sacrifices and prayer offered by an anointed High Priest. However, the old covenant and its hereditary Aaronic priesthood had to repeat its ritual sacrifices ceaselessly. It could not achieve definitive atonement and sanctification. But God, in His love for humanity, gave us His anointed priest, prophet, and Davidic king: Jesus of Nazareth, the son of David and Son of God. In Jesus's perfect sacrifice, we receive the expiation and sanctification that the old order was incapable of giving and which only Jesus Christ, our New Covenant High Priest of the heavenly Sanctuary, can accomplish for all people of all ages. He continually extends His loving gift to us in the sacrifice of the Mass and the offering of Himself in the sacred communion meal of the Eucharist.

The First Reading serves as an introduction to the Gospel Reading in which a scholar of the Law attempts to test Jesus by asking Him which of the Mosaic Law's commandments is the most important. Jesus answers by quoting from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 in our First Reading, but then He adds, "The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" In His answer, Jesus has effectively summed up the entire Law of the Ten Commandments as the love of God (first three commandments) demonstrated by the love of one's brothers and sisters in the human family (last seven commandments). Love is the foundation and fulfillment of the Ten Commandments.

Just as David had confidence in God's faithful covenant love in the Psalm Reading, so too can we know that God loves us in the New Covenant in Christ Jesus in which we demonstrate our love for God by our love of our neighbor. These are the two loves that are inseparable in one's relationship with God. In the Old and New Testaments, one of the central points of God's revelation to humankind is the binding force of love. God is love, and He calls us to love others as He loves us: In this way, the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us ... God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him (1 Jn 4:9-12, 16).

The First Reading Deuteronomy 6:2-6 ~ Promised Blessings for Obedience to the Law
Moses spoke to the people saying: 2"Fear the LORD, your God, and keep, throughout the days of your lives, all the statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you, and thus have long life. 3 Hear, then, Israel, and be careful to observe them, that you may grow and prosper the more, in keeping with the promise of the LORD, the God of your fathers, to give you a land flowing with milk and honey. 4 Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! 5 Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.  6 Take to heart these words which I enjoin on your today."

Our reading was delivered by Moses, God's covenant mediator to the Israelites, in his second homily to the children of Israel at their camp on the east side of the Jordan River as they prepared to begin their conquest of the Promised Land. In his discourse from chapters 6-11, Moses focuses on developing the central ideas of his teaching from the first section of the Ten Commandments (Dt 5:7-10) that demands loyalty to Yahweh, the one true God. The faithfulness of the Israelites demonstrates that commitment by serving only Yahweh, rejecting pagan idols, and continuing the covenant in future generations.

In the introduction to this section, Moses speaks of God's promised blessings for the new generation of Israel's obedience in putting His laws into practice when entering and taking possession of the Promised Land. It is one of the central themes of his final sermons in the Book of Deuteronomy. Moses urges the Israelites to "hear" his teaching on the Law and "keep/protect" what they have learned. He repeats what he taught at the end of his Ten Commandment commentary in Deuteronomy 5:29.

Moses admonished the people: "Fear the LORD, your God, and keep, throughout the days of your lives, all the statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you, and thus have long life."
The Israelites must pass on Moses's teaching and their "fear of Yahweh" to future generations as the basis for covenant continuation.  They must do this by applying God's commands and prohibitions to their daily lives as examples of righteousness living for their children (Dt 6:20-25).

He will urge the Israelites to "fear the Lord" and show obedience to His commandments numerous times in his three homilies. However, Moses is not speaking of the type of fear that drives the people away, like the fear the people felt after witnessing the terrifying Theophany at Mt. Sinai (Ex 20:18-19). At the end of his first homily in Deuteronomy 4:34-40 and in 6:2-5, Moses juxtaposes the fear of God and the call to obey His commandments (verse 2) with his call for the people to love God (verse 5). He uses "fear" as an expression typifying a deep reverence for God that inspires fear of offending God and, therefore, faithfulness to God and loyalty to His covenant. Israel's response to God's love in giving them the Law of the Covenant (the Ten Commandments and other articles of the Law) as a guide to righteousness behavior must be the people's obedience to His commands and loyalty to the covenant as the expression of Israel's love (Dt 4:37; 6:2-5, 13; 10:12-15).

3 Hear, then, Israel, and be careful to observe them, that you may grow and prosper the more, in keeping with the promise of the LORD, the God of your fathers, to give you a land flowing with milk and honey.
If they put what Moses urges into practice, God will reward their obedience with prosperity and fertility in a land that has an abundance of everything to make life good. The promised blessings in verse 3 are reminiscent of those God first promised humanity at the Creation event and repeated to Noah and his family after the Great Flood (see Gen 1:28-30 and 9:1). "A land flowing with milk and honey" is a metaphor describing the abundance of Eden when man lived in perfect harmony with God. It also recalls the promises made to Noah and his family after the Great Flood. In each case, the blessings of fertility and prosperity in the land are associated with a new creation.

In verse 3, the children of Israel were to reap God's blessings if they both feared (loyalty born of reverent respect) and loved Yahweh (Ex 20:20; Lev 25:17, 36, 43; Dt 4:10 5:29; 6:2, 13, 24, and Dt 5:10; 6:5; 10:12; 11:1, 13, 22; 19:9; etc.).

4 Hear [shema], O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!  5 Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.
Their first obligation was to the commanded to love God with an undivided heart and with their whole being (heart, soul, and strength). Second, they were to place their relationship with God as individuals and a unified people above everything else. Verses 4-5 are the opening verses of the Old Covenant profession of faith known as the Shema.  Rabbinic Judaism requires reciting the Old Testament verses of the Shema (Dt 6:4-9; 11:3-21, and Num 15:37-41) in morning and evening prayers.

The passage from the First Reading should remind us of the revelation of God's love for humanity in the New Covenant, which has its origin in God's divine plan already taking shape in the Old Testament. Because of His love for us, God willing sent His "only beloved Son" into the world to die for the sins of humanity so that those who accept God's gift of salvation through the New Covenant of Christ Jesus might have victory over death and life eternally.

Responsorial Psalm 18:2-4, 47, 51
Response: "I love you, Lord, my strength."

2 I love you, O LORD, my strength, O LORD, 3 my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
Response:
 My God, my rock of refuge, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold! 4 Praise be the LORD, I exclaim, and I am safe from my enemies.
Response:
47 The LORD lives!  And blessed be my rock!  [...]. 51 Extolled be God my savior, you who gave great victories to your king and showed kindness [hesed] to your anointed.
Response:

This psalm, attributed to King David, opens with a series of invocations proclaiming God as David's Savior (verses 2-3). Then, David calls upon the Lord: his rock, fortress, and deliverer, in gratitude for saving him from his enemies (verses 3-4). For this reason, David proclaims his faith in the living God (verse 47) and not in the images of false gods in pagan temples. Yahweh gives David (the anointed king of Israel) victory over his enemies and shows him His faithful covenant love, the meaning of the Hebrew word hesed (verse 51). God does this by being faithful to the eternal covenant He made with David and his heirs. It is a covenant that will reach its climax in David's heir and God's beloved Son, Jesus Christ, the Davidic Messiah and King of the eternal Kingdom of the Church on earth and Heaven (see 2 Sam 7:16; 23:5; 2 Chr 13:5; Sir 45:25; Mt 1:1; Lk 1:32).

The Second Reading Hebrews 7:23-28 ~ Jesus our High Priest
23 Those priests were many because they were prevented by death from remaining in office, 24 but he, because he remains forever, has a priesthood that does not pass away.  25 Therefore, he is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them.  It was fitting that we should have such a high priest: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, higher than the heavens.27 He has no need, as did the high priests, to offer sacrifice day after day, first for his own sins and then for those of the people; he did that once for all when he offered himself. 28 For the law appoints men subject to weakness to be high priests, but the word of the oath, which was taken after the law, appoints a son, who has been made perfect forever.

The Aaronic priesthood of the old Sinai Covenant was limited by human frailty and the lifespan of the priest, but the resurrected Jesus Christ is an eternal High Priest, living forever to make continuous intercession for us (CCC#1364; 1366). In Hebrews 7:26-27, the inspired writer list five attributes of Christ as the eternal High Priest of the New Covenant:

  1. holy
  2. innocent
  3. undefiled
  4. separated from sinners
  5. higher than the heavens

He tells us that Jesus is "separated from sinners," but only in His sinless nature and His place in the heavenly Sanctuary. In every other way, Jesus identifies with us and shows us the way to holiness and salvation. He is the perfect High Priest because:

  1. In His sinless nature, He is the perfection of holiness.
  2. God the Father installed Him as the High Priest of the heavenly Sanctuary, from where He rules the Church on earth.
  3. He offers the one perfect and holy sacrifice for the salvation of humanity.

The high priests of the Sinai Covenant had to offer sacrifices day after day for their sins and those of the covenant community. The daily holocaust sacrifices in two liturgical services was the first and foremost continual communal sacrifice commanded for the atonement and sanctification of the covenant people in Exodus 29:38-46. It was the "single" sacrifice known in Hebrew as the Tamid (meaning "standing" as in continual). The Tamid was an unblemished male lamb offered in a liturgical worship service twice daily, once in the morning and again in the afternoon (evening for the covenant people) in a communal sacrifice for all the covenant people along with an offering of cakes of unleavened wheat and a red wine libation. God commanded 15 times in Numbers 28:10, 15, 23, 24, 31; 29:6, 11, 16, 19, 22, 25, 26, 31, 34, and 38 that the Tamid took precedence over all other sacrifices that were only offered "in addition" to the Tamid. See the book "Jesus and the Mystery of the Tamid Sacrifice," available on Amazon.

However, repetition of the Tamid sacrifices and the other sin, communion, and festival sacrifices was necessary. No animal could be perfect enough to obliterate the stain of sin from the human soul and sanctify it by reestablishing continued fellowship with God. The Sinai Covenant sacrifices were also incapable of offering eternal salvation or the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The Catechism teaches:

28 For the law appoints men subject to weakness to be high priests, but the word of the oath, which was taken after the law, appoints a son, who has been made perfect forever.
St. Epiphanius, the late 4th century Bishop of Salamis, wrote concerning the perfect priesthood of Jesus Christ: "For he abides forever to offer gifts for us—after first offering himself by the cross, to abolish every sacrifice of the old covenant by presenting the more perfect, living sacrifice for the whole world. He himself is temple, sacrifice, priest, altar, God, man, king, high priest, lamb, sacrificial victim—become all in all for us that life may be ours in every way and to lay the changeless foundation of his priesthood forever, no longer allotting it by descent and succession by granting that, in accordance with his ordinance, it may be preserved in the Holy Spirit" (Panarion 4, Against Melchizedekians 4.1-7).

If Jesus's sacrifice was "once for all" (Heb 7:28; 9:28), then why do we call the celebration of the Mass a sacrifice? Isn't the sacrifice Jesus offered on the Cross enough? Of course, Jesus's sacrifice on the Cross was complete and sufficient. However, He continues to offer His one perfect sacrifice, made present on the altar of every celebration of the Mass. It is the same sacrifice He offered on the Roman Cross that continues as the sacrifice He offers as both the unblemished victim and our New Covenant High Priest before God in Heaven and which continues to atone for the sins of humanity. As the inspired writer of Hebrews says in 8:3, Now every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus the necessity for this one also to have something to offer (emphasis added).  St. John saw Jesus in Heaven as the Lamb Standing before the throne of God, continually offering His sacrifice (Rev 5:6). St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople (AD 349-407), wrote, quoting this passage: "he says, 'every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer'  [...] But there is no priest without a sacrifice. It is necessary then that he (Jesus) also should have a sacrifice" (On the Epistle to the Hebrews, 14.2).

See the document "Is the Eucharist a True Sacrifice." Also see CCC# 1330; 1366-67; and read Hebrews 8:1-3 while considering that a high priest fills that office only because he offers up a sacrifice as God's representative to His people. Therefore, Jesus continues to fulfill that holy office for God's New Covenant people.

The Gospel of Mark 12:28-34 ~ The Greatest Commandment
28 One of the scribes, when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well he had answered them, asked him, "Which is the first of all the commandments?"  29 Jesus replied, "The first is this: 'Hear O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!  30 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.'  31 The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  There is no other commandment greater than these."  32 The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher.  You are right in saying, 'He is One and there is no other than he.'  33 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."  34 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.

In this encounter with Christ, a scribe aligned with the Pharisees approves of Jesus's answer to the Sadducees when He defended the doctrine of a future bodily resurrection (Mk 12:18-27). However, the scribe stepped forward to test Jesus's understanding of the Torah (the Law of Moses) by asking, "Which is the first of all the commandments?" Jesus answered by quoting from two of the Torah's commandments. The first is from the collection of verses in the Shema (the Old Covenant profession of faith) in Deuteronomy 6:4-5, and the second is from the Holiness Code (Lev Chapters 17-26) in Leviticus 19:18.

The first quote from Deuteronomy 6:7 concerning one's relationship with God commanded that He must receive His people's undivided love and loyalty the encompasses a faithful covenant member's entire being:

Then Jesus told the scholar, "31 The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  There is no other commandment greater than these." Thus, Jesus identified the second law that leads to eternal life by quoting Leviticus 19:18 in the command that one must love one's neighbor as oneself. The two quotes summarized the Ten Commandments: the first three commands address a person's relationship to God. The other seven commandments concern the rightness of a person's relationship with their neighbor (defined as other members of the human family).

32 The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher.  You are right in saying, 'He is One and there is no other than he.'  33 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."  <
The scribe approved of Jesus's answer. He also demonstrated that he had a spiritual understanding of what God requires in offering ritual sacrifices. Then the scribe referred to passages in Scripture when he spoke of the humility of "love" fulfilling Mosaic Law and the ritual of sacrifice. He probably referred to 1 Samuel 15:22, Psalm 40:7-9; 51:18-19, and Amos 5:21-25. The Lord commanded, and David and the prophets Samuel and Amos understood that worship that is only an external ritual devoid of self-sacrifice and love, without a commitment to living in justice and obedience to the commandments of God, is meaningless like a life without a soul.

 

34 And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." 
Jesus approves of the spiritual understanding of the scholar and tells him that he is not far from the kingdom of God.  However, Jesus's response to the scribe implies that something is lacking. 
There is something else the scribe needs to be ready for the Kingdom of God.  He needs to accept Jesus as the Redeemer-Messiah!

And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Jesus defeated all attempts by the religious authorities to discredit Him with the people. This exchange with the scribal scholar was the last time they tried to challenge Jesus on His understanding of the Scriptures.

Catechism References (* indicates Scripture quoted or paraphrased in the citation):
Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (CCC 201, 459*, 2093*); 6:4 (CCC 228, 2083); 6:5 (CCC 368*, 2055*, 2133)

Hebrews 7:24 (CCC 1366, 1564*); 7:25-27 (CCC 1364*); 7:25 (CCC 519, 662, 2634, 2741*); 7:26 (CCC 1544); 7:27 (CCC 1085, 1366, 1540*)

Mark 12:28-34 (CCC 575*), 12:29-31 (CCC 129*, 1296); 12:29-30 (CCC 202*); 12:29 (CCC 228)

The universe was created for God's glory (CCC 293, 294*, 299*, 341, 353)

The duty of reparation (CCC 1459, 2412*, 2487)

Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2015; revised 2021 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.