Homily for Friday, 13 March 2015‒ Friday of the Third Week of Lent

Readings of the day: Hosea 14:2-10; Psalm 81:6c-8a, 8bc-9, 10-11ab, 14, 17; Mark 12:28-34

“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… You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Of the six hundred thirteen commandments in the Law and the Prophets (the bulk of our Old Testament), Jesus cites these two as the two greatest. They would have been very familiar to Jews of Jesus’ time: The first “greatest commandment,” about loving God with our whole being, is the Jewish Shema, named after the Hebrew word that begins this prayer: “Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Ehad” (“Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God; the LORD is One”). This prayer is in our Book of Deuteronomy, and is still prayed by observant Jews every morning and night to this day.  The second “greatest commandment” of Jesus, on love of neighbor,” is found in Leviticus. And so the scribe who asks Jesus in our Gospel reading “Which is the first of all the commandments?” would not at all have been surprised at Jesus’ answer.

 

But when we hear something that is familiar to us, like a prayer or a wise saying, how do we hear it? How many of us know the phrase, “familiarity breeds contempt”? This phrase may apply to the scribe in Mark’s Gospel who asks Jesus what the greatest commandment is, perhaps to test him. The scribe’s arrogance is shown by his reply to Jesus when Jesus has given the two greatest commandments. The scribe says, “‘Well said, teacher. You are right in saying’ love God with your whole being and love your neighbor.” Of course Jesus is right! And at the end of our Gospel reading, caught in their contempt for Jesus, “no one dared to ask him any more questions.”

And yet there is another way to hear a familiar word or saying or phrase. This way is to hear it, each time, with ears newly attuned and hearts renewed by the wisdom of what we are hearing.

For how many of us is there a saying that remains meaningful to us, no matter how many times we hear it? At our morning prayer, we remember our brother Basilians on their anniversary of death. Often we remember, with fondness and usually with humor, sayings of some especially quotable Basilians. A few days ago we remembered Fr. David Heath, author of many gems: “There’s no free lunch.” “I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor. Rich is better”…

Many of us remember Fr. Peter Etlinger here at St. Kateri. He would caution anyone who yearned for the “good old days”: “I was there. They weren’t that good.”

Familiarity does not need to breed contempt or arrogance. Jesus invites us to make the commandments he gives us anew today so familiar to us that they become how we act and who we are: “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” And “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”