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+--- Thread: HOW FAR ARE YOU FROM THE KINGDOM OF GOD? (/showthread.php?tid=3209)
HOW FAR ARE YOU FROM THE KINGDOM OF GOD? - stephenkhoo - 03-12-2021 12:53 PM
HOW FAR ARE YOU FROM THE KINGDOM OF GOD?
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [HOSEA 14:2-10; PS 81:6,8-11,14,17; MARK 12:28-34 ]
Jesus, seeing how wisely the scribe had spoken, said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” In complimenting the sincerity and goodwill of the scribe in seeking the truth, the ultimate happiness in life, it was also clear that he had not yet arrived. What about us, how far are we from the kingdom of God? What does it take to arrive at the Kingdom of God? Jesus provides us the key to entry into God’s Kingdom. To the scribe’s question, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus replied, “This is the first: Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord, and you must 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 must love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment great than these.”
It is important to pay attention to the scribe’s question. He was concerned with the most important of all the commandments. Jesus quoted the shema from Deuteronomy 6:4f which every Jew recites at the beginning of their morning and evening prayers. Indeed, this is the ultimate principle of life. We can live our lives confidently and rightly only when we acknowledge the One God who is our Lord. But more than just a mere intellectual assent to the existence of the One God, we are called to love Him with our entire being, heart, soul, mind and strength. We must put God as the center of our life before all others, including our loved ones. Love is a personal commitment to someone, more so when it comes to God. To love God with our entire heart means that this love comes from within us, from the core of our being. All decisions ultimately come from the heart. It expresses more than just a cerebral conviction but a personal commitment. Of course, it must include the soul, the animating principle of life, our feelings, our emotions; and the mind which consists of knowledge, memory and understanding. Finally, it includes our body as well because loving God requires not just the will but the cooperation of the body in carrying out His commands. What has been said so far is of course agreeable by all Jews.
However, Jesus did not stop at the first commandment. He also listed the second commandment, which is to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is important for the Lord. What was new about Jesus’ response was not the first commandment, which all Jews already knew, but that He linked it explicitly to the second commandment, which is to love one’s neighbor as oneself. This is a citation from Leviticus 19:18. By placing these two commandments side by side, it shows this intrinsic link. This is because one can worship God by offering sacrifices, attending masses, observing the rituals and the ceremonies and yet not love one’s neighbor. This again has always been taught in the Torah but because these two commandments were not placed together, one could forget the obligation of loving one’s neighbor.
Furthermore, loving one’s neighbor is more than just giving them some leftovers from our bounty or giving them something we do not need. The basis of loving our neighbor is to love them as much as we love ourselves. In other words, we must be fully identified with our neighbor in such a way that we feel with them and care for them as much as we care for ourselves. Speaking about the relationship between husband and wife, St Paul wrote, “In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, because we are members of his body.” (Eph 5:28-30) Loving our neighbor is not something we do as an extra, but treating them as part of us, members of the family of God, members of the Body of Christ, and so to love ourselves is to love them; and to love them is to love them as we love ourselves.
In the light of these principles, we must then assess how near we are to living out these two criteria for entry into the kingdom. For the Jews, the greatest obstacle in fulfilling these two commandments was reductionism. In observing the first commandment to love God, it was a mere external observance of rendering worship and sacrifices to God at the Temple and external observance of the commandments. As the Lord, citing from the prophet Isaiah, said of them, “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (Mk 7:6 cf Isa 29:13) This was what the Lord said to the Samaritan woman as well, prophesying the end of sacrifices at the Temple. “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.” (Jn 4:21-23)
Secondly, whilst they knew that they must love their neighbor, it was spelt out in terms of their fellow Jews, and perhaps by extension those who live in their land. But generally, they did not consider non-Jews as their neighbors. This attitude is clearly illustrated in the story of the Good Samaritan. Jesus did not give an answer to the scribe’s question, “Who is my neighbor?” (Lk 10:29) as he wanted to justify himself. Instead, He told him the parable of the Good Samaritan. At the end of the story, the Lord asked him, “Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” (Lk 10:36f) He was cornered into admitting that it was the Samaritan who was a neighbor. Even then, he had difficulties saying the word, “the Samaritan!”
Today, in the light of secularism and individualism, the same struggles exist even in non-believers. Secularism denies the first commandment outright, because it does not subscribe to faith in any God. Their god is humanism, science, technology, pleasure and power. This was what the Israelites were doing in the first reading. Instead of relying on God, they relied on Assyria, their horses and military might. Today, the world believes only in themselves. They supplant the place of God and make themselves their own gods. They believe that they have the answers to all the mysteries of life and all the challenges. They trust in no supernatural being except themselves. Unless they see, hear or feel, they will not believe. Everything is empirical, rational and experimental. Not believing in any God, they hold that there is only one life and this life is on earth. When we die, we will disintegrate and be molecules for new bodies to be formed. There is no life after death and certainly no soul.
Following from secularism is individualism and materialism. Instead of imbibing in the principle of loving our neighbor as ourselves, they just love themselves. If they choose to love their neighbor, it is only because they can benefit from the relationship. So it is about me above everyone else. We fight for our survival, our happiness, our comforts, our security and our popularity. This is why the world today makes use of people and not just things. People are digits that they manipulate and use for their advantage. The powerful control the weak by using money, economic power, pleasures and fame to work for their interests.
Without loving God, there is no basis for loving our neighbor. Why would one sacrifice his life, his enjoyment, his pleasures and security to save others when he has only one life to live? Wouldn’t he be better off taking care of himself and perhaps his loved ones since his life is short and he would be more? Even if we love our neighbor purely from humanitarian reasons, we will love them and care for them from our abundance. But we will not die for them. This is why the Lord is inviting us to return to Him, to place Him at the center of our lives. He told the Israelites, “What has Ephraim to do with idols any more when it is I who hear his prayer and care for him? I am like a cypress ever green, all your fruitfulness comes from me. Let the wise man understand these words. Let the intelligent man grasp their meaning. For the ways of the Lord are straight, and virtuous men walk in them, but sinners stumble.” Let us walk the way of love, God, and then our neighbor.