Thirty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time - Cycle B

Dt 6:2-6
Heb 7:23-28
Mk 12:28b-34

Christ puts the second commandment together with the first. “There is no other commandment greater than these.” The close relationship between these two commandments is discussed at length in the First Letter of John, in which he makes it clear that the failure to love the neighbor we see, and to attend to his needs, makes it impossible to love the God we do not see.

These two closely-related commandments provide the core of the Church’s efforts to defend the unborn and the vulnerable. Because we love God with all our mind, heart, soul, and strength, we cannot place our own plans and choices above His choice to create human life and entrust it to our care. Moreover, we realize that religious piety is never meant to turn us in on ourselves, but rather to make us more attentive and responsive to the needs of the vulnerable. We love our neighbor – including our unborn neighbor – “like ourselves,” which means that we recognize the unborn as a person like ourselves. Some say the unborn are too small, or too unlike us in their characteristics, to be considered a neighbor, a person. But the second commandment requires that we see every human being as a neighbor “like ourselves,” and therefore love them.

This demand of love is greater than any other commandment. Often, it is the claim to observe other commandments that keeps people from intervening to save the unborn. We have legal concerns, often exaggerated. We shrink back because of human respect. We are afraid to part with certain possessions, relationships, or guarantees of security. And sometimes even those to whom we must answer tell us to “tone it down” regarding our outspoken defense of the unborn. But “there is no greater commandment than these.” We are to love our unborn neighbor just as we love our born neighbor, and without reserve.