Friday March 20
Readings: Hos 14:2-10; Mk 12:28-34
In the reading from Hosea, we hear that the people will be healed from their defection, will have no more to do with idols and will be humbled. We are told that those who walk in God’s ways will “strike root like the Lebanon cedar,” have splendor “like the olive tree” and “blossom like the vine.”
I do not think it is mere metaphor that Hosea speaks this way.
Many of the ancient peoples had a very different relationship to the created world than we do. They tended to view themselves as a part of it and knew their place in it. To be like a tree or a vine was a good thing because it meant that we were taking up our rightful place and acting in righteous ways (meaning we respected everything around us).
But Israel as a nation was also tempted by idols – idols of power, wealth and control – and we see this tension playing out in the scriptures. Israel kept forgetting their “place” and needed to be “right-sized” by the prophets – not because God was mean or punishing – but because living out of harmony has disastrous consequences for people and everything around you. Like Israel, we, too, need to be healed from our defections.
In the gospel, Jesus gets questioned about what the “most important” commandment is. He responds by quoting the shema – a centerpiece of Jewish prayer life that begins, “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.” The Shema is also one of only two prayers specifically commanded in Torah (the other is grace after meals!). Jesus then adds, “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
I think about the deep wisdom of these two statements.
I don’t pretend to know what it means to stay connected to God with all my heart, mind, soul and strength. I really see it as an aspirational statement (not a place we ever arrive at), and one that offers a place for deep and continual reflection in all of our lives. This also might prompt the question of who God is for us. How do we view God? What kind of relationship does God want from us? What kind of relationship do we want with God? How does God act and move in the world? How does God want humanity to act in the world?
Clearly the God of Jesus was a God of compassion and justice, tenderness and mercy. And Jesus saw that God moving through his own life.
That’s why Jesus adds the second part about loving neighbor. Loving God (vertical relationship) has no real meaning if it is not connected to loving neighbor (horizontal relationships). And loving neighbor, we’re reminded elsewhere in scripture, is about meeting people’s physical and emotional needs. Loving God is not some privatized, gushy experience. It requires something of us.
Living in harmony with God, our fellow humans and all of creation is what we are called back to each Lent. This is no easy task because we are living in and very dependent upon systems which promote fragmentation, inequity and oppression. Our faith asks us to address this with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. May it be so!