DEUTERONOMY 6:1-9
These are the commandments, precepts, and statutes that Yahweh your God has commanded to teach you, that you may do them… Hear, O Israel: Yahweh our God is one Yahweh. You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I command you today in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
We will not dwell on a detailed explanation of this text (nor of Leviticus, which we offer as an alternative to Hebrews). It continues along the same lines as last week, although the expression “separated from sinners” is strikingly surprising and should be explained well so that it does not mean what it seems. They still sound quite like the “prehistory of Jesus,” and we feel the joy of recognizing “The Word” being born both in such remote and shadowy times and in some interpretations of the New Testament.
HEBREWS 7:23-28
Such a high priest was fitting for us, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.
THE TEXTS FOR THESE SUNDAYS
In the last three Sundays of the liturgical cycle (Sundays 31-33 of Ordinary Time), we conclude the continuous reading of the Gospel of Mark. The three passages we read on these Sundays are set in the same context: Jesus’ preaching in the Temple of Jerusalem in the last week of his life. These are the last messages of Jesus’ oral preaching and the peak of his confrontation with the powers of Israel.
As on many other occasions, and even more so if possible, in these three Sundays, the complete disconnection of the second reading in reference to the other two is striking. It continues to make a more or less continuous reading of the Letter to the Hebrews, with the image of the High Priest of Israel applied to Christ. But the importance of the Gospel texts – well accompanied by the first readings – would merit that the second readings could also be included to reinforce the message.
This is particularly applicable to this Sunday XXXI. Jesus enunciates the essence of the Law “You shall love the Lord your God… You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” equating the two commandments as if they were one. The first reading shows the proclamation of the first of these commandments according to the version of Deuteronomy. It would not be bad if the second reading showed the version of the OT regarding the second commandment. We propose the clearest text of this proclamation:
LEVITICUS 19:13-19
You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning. You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go up and down as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand forth against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord.
You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason with your neighbor, lest you bear sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
If it is preferred that this second reading be taken from the NT, as is customary in the readings of the Eucharist, the texts of the FIRST LETTER OF JOHN would be very appropriate, in which the commandment of love is proclaimed in such a full way, in phrases that should constitute the essence of the spirituality of the Christian. We offer these texts at the end. Any of these options seem to us much more convenient than the reading of the letter to the Hebrews, so disconnected from the central message of this Sunday.
José Enrique Galarreta