We have something of an identity statement of the Hebrew religion in our first reading today, which you can still hear Jewish people using today, several times weekly, if not daily. They call it the Sh’ma (pictured above in the Hebrew Bible), which is the Hebrew word for ‘hear,’ the first word of the statement which addresses God in the third person. Hear, o Israel, the Lord your God is one God, and you shall love Him with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.
“‘Go in fear of the Lord thy God; here is a lifelong task for thee, and thy sons and thy grandsons after thee, to observe all the laws and decrees I here make known to thee; so thou wilt keep what thou hast won. The Lord thy God, Israel, has promised thee a land that is all milk and honey; but if thou art to prosper and multiply there, thou must needs listen to His commands, and mark them well, and live by them. Listen then, Israel; there is no Lord but the Lord our God, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with the love of thy whole heart, and thy whole soul, and thy whole strength. The commands I give thee this day must be written on thy heart…”
Book of Deuteronomy, 6: 2-6 [link]
A close enough statement for the Christian is the minor Gloria, which reveals that the one God of the Hebrews is a Trinity of persons. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be. Both statements define their respective religious community. Both are associated with a covenantal requirement: obedience of the commandments of God. The one in Deuteronomy immediately precedes the Sh’ma. But this theological basis for the commandments is revealed also by our Lord in the gospel story when He attaches to the Sh’ma the requirement that we should love our neighbours as ourselves. This is the point of the commandments, it is their inner logic – the love of God and the love of neighbour. At another point in the gospel, the smart-aleck lawyer who posed the question to Christ dared to ask who the neighbour was, and received as a reply the marvellous story of the Good Samaritan, where love/charity once more triumphs over legalities.
“One of the scribes heard their dispute, and, finding that He answered to the purpose, came up and asked Him, ‘Which is the first commandment of all?’ Jesus answered him, ‘The first commandment of all is, Listen, Israel; there is no God but the Lord thy God; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with the love of thy whole heart, and thy whole soul, and thy whole mind, and thy whole strength. This is the first commandment, and the second, its like, is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these.’ And the scribe said to Him, ‘Truly, Master, Thou hast answered well; there is but one God, and no other beside Him; and if a man loves God with all his heart and all his soul and all his understanding and all his strength, and his neighbour as himself, that is a greater thing than all burnt-offerings and sacrifices.’ Then Jesus, seeing how wisely he had answered, said to him, ‘Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.’ And after this, no one dared to try Him with further questions.”
Gospel of S. Mark, 12: 28-34 [link]
The command to love neighbour as self is not an innovation of our Lord; it already existed in the Old Testament; the innovation of Christ is that we must love not only our friends and those who love us, but our enemies as well. Perfect love, perfect charity is given to absolutely everyone who needs it. As the second reading from the letter to the Hebrews declares, perfect love (as demonstrated by Christ our High-priest) pours itself out entirely for the sake of sinners, that is, those people who have lived in enmity towards God. And, to return to the story of the Good Samaritan, Jews and Samaritans were traditional enemies and so the impossible became possible in that parable.
There is a great mystery in this, because it does not come naturally to the human heart to sacrifice itself for its enemies. Throughout the history of the Church, the great martyrs were treated by their persecutors with surprise and a derision born of incomprehension. What is this strange love that sacrifices itself for strangers, persecutors and enemies? But the wise scribe of the gospel story correctly notes that this great love is more important than holocausts or sacrifice, which is a significant admission by a Jewish teacher who lived constantly in the shelter of the Jerusalem Temple and its conveyor belt system of animal sacrifices.
What was the purpose of the holocausts and sacrifices of the Temple? It was the forgiveness or putting away of sin, in order that the person offering the Sacrifice could draw nearer in purity to God. If love/charity is greater than the sacrifices, then love/charity has the ability to itself effect the putting away of sin. And indeed, Christ said of the woman who washed His feet with her tears that her great charity had led Him to forgive her sins. Again, as S. Peter says in the first of the two letters of his that we have towards the end of the Bible, love covers over a multitude of sins. The Apostle then continues to speak of hospitality given ungrudgingly, and of dealing mercifully in the way that God is merciful with us.
So then, the true sacrifice is not an animal sacrifice, but a sacrifice of self – a sacrifice of our personal prejudices and dislikes, in order to offer charity even to those we may dislike or who may dislike us. And again, this is not easy, it is not in our nature. But if we are to be perfect, we shall build our natures up with the grace of Christ, thus becoming more like Him, and more able to offer a sacrifice like unto His own. And in this love of ours for our neighbour and our observance of the commandments of Moses is revealed our love for the God Who gave us those commandments – the one God Who is three, Who is our strength in all things, our refuge and our stronghold (in the words of our psalm), and to Whom be glory and praise both now and always.
“Shall I not love thee, Lord, my only Defender?
Psalm 17(18) – the Song of David [link]
The Lord is my rock-fastness,
my stronghold, my rescuer;
to God, my hiding-place, I flee for safety;
He is my shield, my weapon of deliverance, my refuge.
Praised be the Lord!
When I invoke His name,
I am secure from my enemies.
All about me surged the waves of death,
deep flowed the perilous tide, to daunt me;
the grave had caught me in its toils,
deadly snares had trapped my feet.
One cry to the Lord in my affliction,
one word of summons to my God,
and He, from His sanctuary, listened to my voice;
the complaint I made before Him found a hearing…”
Catholic Louth and Mablethorpe 