Mark 12:28-34
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)
The First Commandment
28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that he is one, and there is no other but he; 33 and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 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 him any question.
Cited in the Catechism: In promulgating the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Blessed John Paul II explained that the Catechism "is a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium." He went on to "declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion" (Fidei Depositum). Passages from this Gospel reading are cited in the Catechism, paragraphs 129, 202, 228, 575 and 2196.
Commentary
The greatest commandment of all
12:28–34. The doctor of the law who asks Jesus this question is obviously an upright man who is sincerely seeking the truth. He was impressed by Jesus’ earlier reply (vv. 18–27) and he wants to learn more from him. His question is to the point and Jesus devotes time to instructing him, though he will soon castigate the scribes, of whom this man is one (cf. Mk 12:38ff).
Jesus sees in this man not just a scribe but a person who is looking for the truth. And his teaching finds its way into the man’s heart. The scribe repeats what Jesus says, savouring it, and our Lord offers him an affectionate word which encourages his definitive conversion: “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” This encounter reminds us of his meeting with Nicodemus (cf. Jn 3:1ff). On the doctrinal content of these two commandments see the note on Mt 22:34–40.
12:30. This commandment of the Old Law, ratified by Jesus, shows, above all, God’s great desire to engage in intimate conversation with man: “Would it not have sufficed to publish a permission giving us leave to love him? […] He makes a stronger declaration of his passionate love of us, and commands us to love him with all our power, lest the consideration of his majesty and our misery, which make so great a distance and inequality between us, or some other pretext, divert us from his love. In this he well shows that he did not leave in us for nothing the natural inclination to love him, for to the end that it may not be idle, he urges us by his general commandment to employ it, and that this commandment may be affected, there is no living man he has not furnished him abundantly with all means requisite thereto” (St Francis de Sales, Treatise on the Love of God, book 2, chap. 8).
Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
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"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." St Jerome
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