Dig Deeper into Sunday’s Gospel: Read Mark 12:28–34
About every three weeks, I have a conversation with my husband that goes something like this, “Can we have a meeting about our finances? We really need to start focusing more on how we manage our money.” When he agrees, I add, “Also, food dyes are like poison for the kids. I found a podcast to help us get the kids to eat whole foods; I’ll send it to you.” Then, before he can respond, I’m off to the races, “How’s your workout, prayer life, the home project to-do list?” By then, my patient husband typically responds, “Mallory, let’s focus on one thing.”
The problem is, I can’t just pick one thing. I don’t know if you can relate to this, but I typically feel like everything is essential and must be addressed immediately. I easily succumb to the tyranny of the urgent, but all too often, the urgent feels infinite. Trying to do all the things: be a good wife, a present mother, an excellent employee, fit, healthy, and organized while chasing sainthood leaves me exhausted, grabbing my phone at the end of the day for a mindless escape.
I imagine the man speaking with Jesus in this week’s gospel (Mark 12:28–34) understood the pressure of trying to do everything perfectly. Jewish scribes were responsible for writing sacred texts, such as the Torah, and teaching about the 613 biblical laws. And so you can imagine that an expert of hundreds of statutes might feel overwhelmed trying to follow them all perfectly. He needed to narrow his focus.
In Mark 12:28–31, the scribe asked Jesus, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus replied, “The first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Most of us know this gospel reading well. If someone were to ask us to explain the greatest Christian commandment, we would have no trouble repeating Christ’s words. But how often do our hearts skip a beat or fill with awe and wonder when we say it? Probably not often because familiarity can make the magnificent seem dull. What Jesus says here is anything but commonplace; it’s a reminder of God’s unfathomable greatness.
Jesus responded to the scribe, saying, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone” (Mark 12:29). The scribe knew immediately that Jesus was referring to the Shema, the central Jewish prayer proclaimed by Moses in Deuteronomy 6:4–9:
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
The idea that there is only one God is nothing new to the Christian, but for the ancient Israelites, it was earth shattering. In the time of Moses, the world was dominated by polytheism. These gods were mean, manipulative, and vindictive. People were required to sacrifice to the gods for favors, but the relationship between man and the gods was one of domination and subservience. Love had nothing to do with it.
And so it must have been incredible for the Israelites to learn that God is not many, but one. He is nothing like the gods of old who cannot save and have no love for those who serve them. The one true God is love. He longs for His people to share in that love, letting it overflow into how we see ourselves and treat others.
Jesus was reminding the scribe that God is utterly magnificent. While there are many laws to follow, they are all wrapped up in one: to love the God who loved us first and let that love affect everything else. If the scribe could focus on these two laws, he didn’t need to worry much about the rest. What an incredible relief.
And so, dear friend, allow me to take some things off your plate. We live in a world designed to force us to bow to the many small gods of “important and urgent.” We share a beautiful faith filled with many different practices and devotions. Trying to do it all is a fool’s errand. As long as we wake up every day and serve the small gods of the critical and urgent, we will feel unsettled and tired. We will find it very hard to love ourselves as we constantly bump up against our limitations and failings. This will affect our ability to love the people in our lives.
Yes, life is filled with unignorable tasks: Marriages need attention, work must get done, kids must be cared for, and the to-do list won’t do itself. So what’s the solution?
Turn your eyes to Jesus, remember His great commandment, and take a deep breath because, with God, less is more. The more we love Him, the more everything else falls into place. It’s not that Jesus wanted to excuse the scribe from following the Jewish laws; it's that the rules were meant to express a love for God. It is the same for us; our lives are meant to be an expression of God’s love. If we genuinely focus on loving Him with all our heart, soul, and strength, the rest will follow. It will be easier to love ourselves, because we will start to see ourselves through God’s eyes. This, in turn, will affect our relationships and how we live our lives.
As St. Augustine wrote, “Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved.”
In His heart,
Mallory Smyth
Food for thought or journaling...
Take a moment and map out your life. Include how you practice your faith, daily tasks, other things that regularly end up on your schedule, and attitudes toward yourself and others. Take these things to prayer and ask God how He would like to reorder them. If you truly made love of God first and foremost in your life, what needs to go, what needs to stay, and what needs to change? Ask God to help you transition from what you mapped out to how He wants your life to look, with love for Him at the center.
Dear God, I praise You that You are wonderfully different from the false gods seeking to control my life. While everything demands my attention, You call me to turn my eyes to You. You ask me to put everything in perspective, seek Your kingdom first, and let everything fall into place. Honestly, Lord, that requires me to let go of the tightly held control I try to have over my life and choose to live differently. Please give me the grace to do that. Please help me fall more deeply in love with You and see everything else in light of my love for You. Give me the strength to direct my noes and yeses toward building a life focused solely on loving You, myself, and my neighbor. Amen.
