Mark 12:28-34

• Fyodor Dostoyevsky in The Brothers Karamazov tells the story of a selfish person who was almost spared hell because of an onion.  She had already been dispatched to Hades.  An angel advocate pleaded to God on her behalf.  "But, Lord, she once gave an onion to a beggar." God ordered that she be lifted out of hell by the onion.  The woman was desperately clutching the small onion as she was being lifted out.  People, as anxious to get out of hell as she was, tried to clutch to her legs.  She kicked them off.  "Just me," she shouted.  As she spoke these words, her hands slipped off the onion.  She fell back into hell. 

Do you get the feeling that the late nineteenth century novelist took today's Gospel quite literally?  According to this Russian genius, the Christ was not pulling our collective legs when He told us to love our neighbors with as much enthusiasm as we love our own selves.

This love must not merely take the form of feeling sorry for another person in need.  Rather it must be expressed in actions we perform for him or her.  "Spare me your sympathy," shouts the person in need, "and your prayers; lift me up." George Bernard Shaw wrote, "Beware of the man whose God is in the skies."    Nor must our attention be directed merely to the  "deserving poor." The Teacher in the Gospels never made a distinction among the deserving and the undeserving poor.  He never submitted any of them to a litmus test.  Dostoyevsky was very much aware of this point.  He was convinced that even the most horrible of us is capable of salvation.  His compassion had no boundaries.  Nor must ours.  Someone has noted Jesus the Christ spent most of His life answering the question "Who is my neighbor?" in word and especially deed.  We may claim ignorance of the answer, but it is self-imposed ignorance at best.     Mother Teresa was correct.  She said you can put all the essence of the Gospels in five words: "You do it for me." "Whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do it for me." (Mt 25:40)

The rabbi Hillel put the same case negatively.  He was a contemporary of the Nazarene.  A disciple asked him to sum up the whole law while standing on one leg.  Without hesitation, he took his right leg off the floor.  He said simply, "What thou hatest for thyself, do not do to thy neighbor.  This is the entire law.  Everything else is but a commentary on it.  Go and learn." Hillel placed his right foot back on the floor and smiled at his astonished disciple.

The marvel of Jesus' Gospel is that while it is admittedly difficult to put into action, its simplicity allows it to be understood even by a young child.

Psychiatrists testify that one reason we find it difficult to love others is that we really do not love our own selves.  So, how can I love the person next to me or down the block or in the next neighborhood if I do not appreciate myself? This theory may explain why violence, sexism and racism are so endemic in our culture.  Surely each of us must better learn to appreciate our own selves.  But, even more importantly perhaps, if we work with children or young people, we must teach them to feel comfortable with themselves.

If we are successful, the next generation of adults will be able to live out their lives in a more peaceable kingdom than we.  They will be able to see the wisdom of the cry that teaches, "Don't be Christian.  Be Christ."  Or, as Dostoyevsky's countryman Count Leo Tolstoy put it, "Each one of us should be a Christ in miniature." Dostoyevsky, not to speak of Jesus Himself, will indeed be very pleased if that should occur in our own case.

Scott Seethaler incisively writes, "Christianity is not a religion of 'me' but 'we'...We are being invited to hand over our five loaves and two fish and trust that God will multiply our gifts." He makes the point that we must make our own the spirit of the Latino families among whom he has worked.  Often, when he went into their homes, they would say, "Estas in tu casa" or "You are in your own home." The little which these people had they were quite delighted to share with him.   A proverb from the East sums up today's Gospel in this fashion.  "The narrowminded ask, `Are these people strangers or are they members of our tribe?' But to those in whom love dwells, the whole world is but one family."

(Fr. Gilhooley's book Reflections on the Sunday Gospels (Years A, B & C) is available through the Homiletic Resource Center.)

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