Mark 12:28-34  Love without borders

The central question of today’s Gospel, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ is the third in a series of four questions directed at Jesus.  Jesus responds in the Temple, with direct quotes from the Torah, placing him as an authoritative teacher of Scripture.  There is no conflict here between Jesus and the scribe who poses the question; Mark’s Jesus is calling for his followers to live up to the Torah ideals of care for all, particularly the poor, oppressed and vulnerable.  Love of God, manifested in care of neighbour, in central to the Gospel.

To ‘love one’s neighbour as oneself’ can be extremely challenging, especially when we find our ‘neighbour’ difficult to get along with.  What if the person we are called to love is our ‘enemy’, who belongs to a different community or tradition, or whose viewpoint is at odds with our own?  Yet experience tells us that even the most entrenched conflicts can be resolved through respectful dialogue.  More than twenty-five years ago, on 10 April 1998, the Good Friday Agreement was signed, marking the end of thirty years of violence in Northern Ireland, a conflict that claimed more than 3,600 lives.  It was the culmination of years of negotiation and relationship-building at many levels, not just the political.  Building peace is a slow and complex process, but it begins with respecting the dignity of our neighbours, no matter the difference between us.  The late Fr Gerry Reynolds, who was instrumental in the peace ministry and ground-breaking talks during this time, often spoke of the importance of friendship in opening hearts to mutual understanding: “We witness to a God who is with us in every human face – a God who sets no bounds to his love and compels us to set none on ours.”  Jesus calls us to love, not suspicion, to openness and not hardness of heart.  We are to create a new community where enemies become friends, everyone is our neighbour, and everyone needs are provided for.

© Triona Doherty & Jane Mellet, 2023.  The Deep End: A Journey with the Sunday Gospels in the Year of Mark.  (Dublin: Messenger Publications 2023).

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‘Dialogue is a new name for faith in the spirit of God present in every person; it is a new name for the patient hope that sustains us in the long haul; it is the new name for love of one’s neighbour – and indeed of one’s enemy.                       – Fr Gerry Reynolds