REFLECTIONS TODAY
Gospel • Mark 12:28-34
Jesus quotes the Shema (Dt 6:4) in responding to the scribe who, like many Jews, is anxious to know which of the 613 prescriptions in the Torah is the most important. The command to love God with one’s whole person and everything in one’s power, Jesus says, is first because the love of God sums up the whole Mosaic Law and gives meaning to their observance.
Then Jesus adds a second (taken from Lv 19:18): love of neighbor. He says that these are the two greatest commandments of the Law. Jesus here points out that righteousness does not consist in observing a complex code of laws and customs but in loving God and neighbor.
Why in the world do we love? Because we have already been and are continuously being loved by God! God does not need our love. He is complete in himself. But because God is love and God’s Spirit flows through the deepest recesses of our being, loving for us comes naturally, not only to our neighbor, but towards all of creation. That is why whenever we refuse to love in our words and deeds, we actually go against God himself and our very nature.
First Reading • Hos 14:2-10
Thus says the Lord: Return, O Israel, to the Lord, your God; you have collapsed through your guilt. Take with you words, and return to the Lord; Say to him, “Forgive all iniquity, and receive what is good, that we may render as offerings the bullocks from our stalls. Assyria will not save us, nor shall we have horses to mount; We shall say no more, ‘Our god,’ to the work of our hands; for in you the orphan finds compassion.” I will heal their defection, says the Lord, I will love them freely; for my wrath is turned away from them. I will be like the dew for Israel: he shall blossom like the lily; he shall strike root like the Lebanon cedar, and put forth his shoots. His splendor shall be like the olive tree and his fragrance like the Lebanon cedar. Again they shall dwell in his shade and raise grain; they shall blossom like the vine, and his fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
Ephraim! What more has he to do with idols? I have humbled him, but I will prosper him. “I am like a verdant cypress tree”— because of me you bear fruit! Let him who is wise understand these things; let him who is prudent know them. Straight are the paths of the Lord, in them the just walk, but sinners stumble in them.
Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2025,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: publishing@stpauls.ph; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.