Tess Koning, a member of our Parish Pastoral Council and Principal of St Peter’s Primary School, reads from the Gospel of Mark (12: 28-34) in which the Jesus says, ‘you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength’ and ‘you must love your neighbour as yourself’.

Tess says, today’s Gospel highlights a conversation between a scribe (a teacher of the Law) and Jesus, where the scribe was impressed by the previous demonstration of Jesus’ understanding and challenges him with this subtle question. While Jesus is being asked to choose one commandment, his response shows that there are two that combine into one to demonstrate that love of God is to be expressed in the love of humans.

Jesus personifies the great commandment of love, by loving God and people to his death as a sacrifice of love. The scribe’s response shows he has a deep insight into the commandments of the love of God and neighbour as the greatest principles of sacrifice. Jesus’ comment refers to how people such as the scribe can understand God’s kingdom.

In his Gospel, Mark invites us to become like the scribe, with a deep insight into the essence of Jesus’ teaching. Our challenge is to show our love of God by our love of neighbour.

Today, Tess says, we might ask ourselves; do we truly respond from our liturgical celebrations of the sacrifice of Christ, into the lived experience of our sacrifice for others?