Today's Gospel

The Wholehearted Challenge

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant. Today's reading is one of those ones we're familiar with. We hear it a lot and so we need to try and find a new layer. And that's why each day we're looking for a word or a phrase or an idea because in that simple exercise, we find ever new layers in the scriptures. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Mark 12:28-34. One of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another and seeing that He answered them well, asked Jesus, "Which commandment is the first of all?" Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, Oh Israel. The Lord your God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' And the second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." And the scribe said to Jesus, "You are right, teacher. You have truly said that He is one and there is no other but He. And to love Him with all your heart and with all your understanding and with all your strength and to love one's neighbor as oneself is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And after that, no one dared to ask Jesus any questions. It's a fantastic reading. It's just so much here. What jumps out at you today?

First thing for me is Jesus talking about, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." And there's wholeheartedness. When is the last time you did something wholeheartedly, with your whole heart? Because I think we do a lot of things half-heartedly. I do a lot of things half-heartedly. It's not that I say, "Oh. I'm going to do a half-hearted job of this," or, "I'm going to do this thing half-heartedly." But I get distracted and then I realize, "Oh. I'm only half in this," or it's something I don't really want to do. I don't really want to pay the bills or I don't really want to do this chore. And so the danger is to do it half-heartedly. And the challenge is to do it wholeheartedly and offer it to God as a prayer for someone in our life, for a specific intention. And so that was one thing that struck me. The second thing that struck me is that the scribe says to Jesus - think about this - basically, "Good job, Jesus." As if Jesus needs to be affirmed or as if Jesus needs to be told, "Yeah. You got that one right, Jesus." But the scribe says to Jesus, "You are right, teacher. You have truly said." And so I find that amusing. Why? Because it points out that the scribe has really no idea who he's in the presence of. Because if he had any comprehension of who he was in the presence of, his response to Jesus would have been radically different.

And then the third thing I'll point out is that as the scribe repeats back to Jesus what Jesus said to him, it changes, okay? Only slightly, only slightly, but it does have some little changes. And one of those little changes is Jesus says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength." The scribe says, "Shall love Him with all your heart and with all your understanding." With all your understanding is different to your mind. Your mind is much vaster than your understanding. And the reason I find it fascinating is because the scribes and the Pharisees were so intellectual. They were in awe of their own understanding. And so for him to translate or speak back to Jesus, "With all your understanding," when Jesus said, "With your whole mind," is only the slightest difference, right, but it's different. And what does it tell me? It's like when we're listening to God, we're listening to the Word of God, we're listening to the Holy Spirit and the moments of that day. We need to pay close attention to any temptation to change what God is actually saying to us. Have a great day. And remember, Be Bold. Be Catholic.