The Nazareth Page- A gospel meditation for your home

November 3, 2024 – Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time. Mark 12:28-34

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
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Research about religion is now a respected branch of social inquiry and analysis. Being a branch of social science, it often creates helpful flow-charts, graphs and statistical lists that tell us about current religious beliefs and practices. Its findings are often presented in an historical framework so that we can be informed about changes in the state of religion in the today’s world. Being trained as a sociologist and theologian, I have an abiding interest in this field of study.

Today’s gospel, however, might cause us to wonder whether such analyses actually help us get to “the heart of the matter,” to borrow a phrase from the esteemed novelist, Graham Greene, who often sought to describe religious vitality in the real world.

An unnamed scribe (a scholar?) asks Jesus to describe what Jesus thinks is most important in the religious sphere of life. Might it be dutifully following all the laws and practices of organized religion? Or personal practices like carefully eating only what one’s religion prescribed, or perhaps attending to those in need?  

But Jesus takes a different approach and replies that fundamentally religion concerns the state of one’s heart. It’s about the love that is within you. You are to love God with all your heart and love your neighbor, no matter what.

And while Jesus doesn’t mention it here, loving with that depth is the hardest demand any of us face. And it is virtually impossible to measure such love from the outside because it dwells in the deepest part of us. It can be seen in love shown in actions but the presence of genuine love of God and neighbor dwells in the deepest part of our being.

This reminds me of the contemporary cosmology seeking to find the fundamental building block of all matter and energy. We know it’s there because we can perceive and measure matter and energy. And the same can be said about love. It’s known through how it affects our lives. In fact, every moment of our lives.

So when we ask why do we, along with all the rest of creation, exist? The answer is because God loves. And how do we best respond to that love? By loving God back. That’s first. And how do we most deeply show that love in the world? By looking around and to quote a line from a song, “by finding someone to love.” (And to help, if needed.)

David M. Thomas, PhD