Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Osmond Anike

Readings:

First Reading: Deuteronomy 6:2-6 – You shall love the lord your God with all your heart.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 17(18):2-4, 47, 51 – I love you, Lord, my strength.

Second Reading: : Hebrews 7:23-28 – Christ, because he remains for ever, can never lose his priesthood.

Gospel: Mark 12:28-34 – ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God’.

The heart of Israelite faith is summed up in the Torah by the famous Creed of Judaism (the ‘Shema’ Deut.6:4-9) read in the first reading of today, which also serves as Israelite’s most treasured prayer. The central theme of Deuteronomy’s law is true worship of Yahweh and the rejection of any pagan idols. The Shema, therefore, is a prayer central to Jewish piety. It is often the first section of Scripture that a Jewish child learns. It got its name from the first Hebrew word of the prayer: “She-ma yisrael, adonai eloheinu, adonai echad….” – “Listen (Hear), O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your strength”. This prayer became a daily prayer in the ancient Israelite tradition which was recited or sung morning and evening. It has functioned as both the Jewish pledge of allegiance to God and as a hymn of praise. To make sure that Israel will never forget this commandment, Deuteronomy goes on to add: “And these words which I command you today shall be put on your heart, and you shall teach them carefully to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in the house, and when you are out walking, when you lie down at night and when you arise in the morning. And you shall bind them on your hands, and tie them on your foreheads, and you shall write them on the doorposts of your houses and gates” (Deut.6:6-9).

The Jewish people took this injunction very literally. They carried around prayer books containing the Shema. The Shema was written on their doorsteps and gates. They recited it whenever they gathered together especially on major feat days. It was also recited as the last words before one’s death. By the time of Jesus, however, it had become fashionable to use the Shema as a measure of one’s spirituality. Anybody who didn’t know it off by heart was considered not spiritual, whereas to recite it off by heart was taken as a sign of deep religiosity. When one of the scribes put the question to Jesus in the gospel of today about the Shema, he was not asking in order to learn the Shema but rather to find out whether this man who was claiming to be the Messiah even knew the basics of Judaism at all – the Shema. The question was therefore a kind of trap to find something against Jesus. However, Jesus not only recited the Shema off by heart, but added to it a commandment from Leviticus 19:18: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself”. In joining this Levitical commandment to the Shema, Jesus intended to emphasize a dimension to the Shema that was often neglected by his contemporaries namely: Love of God and love of neighbour are intrinsically connected together and cannot be separated from each other.

We Christians have often been ineffective in our mission of evangelization because we frequently try to separate love of God from love of neighbour. We claim to love God but we sure like hell hate one another. The First World War was not fought between Christians and non-Christians but rather among the so-called “Christian Europe” whose professed hatred for one another led to that dark spot in human history. The effect of this internal hatred among Christians metamorphosed to a full-blown anti-Semitism that ushered in the Second World War and resulted in the greatest and most grotesque massacre of human beings in modern history. This anti-Semitism has continued to characterize our world even today. Yet, everywhere churches are littered where we regularly gather to sing praise and worship God in all fashionable manners, only to fight each other after such gatherings. Our professed love for God is not complete until we begin to love and tolerate each other. This was why when Jesus was asked about the “greatest” commandment, he rather gave two instead of one. But they are two commandments that together form one coherent whole. He is in effect saying that any attempt to remove love of neighbour from this Jewish central profession of love of God will render the entire Shema hollow.

When the scribe saw that Jesus was very knowledgeable in the Shema, he tried also to show off by proving that he too knew the second aspect that Jesus brought out – the aspect of love of neighbour. It was as if to say, ‘Well, you exceeded my expectation; but I am also a well-grounded rabbi and I equally know the second aspect which you just brought out’. However, the reply of Jesus to him is something worth meditating upon: “You are not far from the kingdom of God”. These are carefully chosen words from Jesus, and in no way implies that the scribe has entered the kingdom of God. One could find oneself not far from a place without ever entering that place. Moses was not far from the Promised Land. He came so close to it and was even shown the entire land by Yahweh. He admired it from a short distance. But he never entered it. Malta is a tinny country in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea that I desire to visit. Each time I travel from Belgium to Nigeria and back, I always hover around Malta. I watch helplessly as my flight’s navigation screen indicates that we are not far Malta. I have that desire to visit Malta, but until I put that desire into practice by purchasing a ticket to Malta and boarding a flight to go there, I may continue to hover around Malta without ever entering it. The scribe had all the theories necessary to understand the path to the kingdom of God. But unless those theories are translated into practice, one might just hover around the kingdom without ever entering it. This is also very true of us Christians. We are not far from the kingdom of God since we know all the theories of Christianity and all the laws and commandments of God. Everything that is expected of us as Christians, we know off by heart. But until we put all these into practice, we may never enter the kingdom of God.

I wish to conclude this homily by recapitulating how I met, in the former community (before this current all-embracing one was inaugurated recently), people with diverse religious and convictional backgrounds. Many of you were not originally Catholics; many came from Pentecostal background; many were not Christians at all; and many were not even attached to any religion whatsoever. When I saw what was facing me, I devoted my entire energy to primary evangelization by teaching you the fundamentals of Christianity, the basics of what spirituality is and what it is not, the need to go for formation, get a job and stop being a burden to the Belgian society (this was when I observed that many of you were idling around, not wanting to find a job, and only depending on the so-called CPAS and unemployment benefits – chômage). I tried also to teach you some simple courtesy and decency. I often told you that it was impossible to be a good Christian if one was a bad human being. I told you that Christianity begins with humanity; and that was why the Word was made flesh. However, it was not an easy task for me, especially given that many of our African migrants coming abroad to eke out a living have this bizarre notion that Europe is a place where there are no controls whatsoever; where everybody does anything he/she likes without any consequences. This was succinctly summarized in the now infamous expression among you which I helped to put a stop to, namely, “This is Europe”. But I got a lot of opposition for my efforts. Some who came from Pentecostal background wanted me to “Pentecostalize” the community by focusing on the so-called prosperity gospel. Some who came from non-Christian background wanted me to “de-Christianise” the community entirely and make it a political battlefield where people come to settle scores. Some who were not attached to any religion at all and those who refused to find something doing, wanted me to desacralize the community so that it would become nothing more than a social club or a night club.

There were forces and counter-forces pulling me here and there to cave in either way. But I knew that I would be failing in my theological calling if I gave in to these pressures. As a systematic theologian, I couldn’t just stand aloof and watch my community drift far away from the Catholic Church and her teachings and completely lose her catholic identity. I therefore had to stand very firmly, even at the risk of being called all sorts of names. I focused all my energy not only on teaching the Catholic doctrines but also on such chore messages of Christianity as love, tolerance, kindness, simplicity, forgiveness, courtesy and decency, as well as on how to achieve true and lasting happiness. That many of you embraced my teachings in spite of the opposition and name calling is evident from the number of Catholic weddings, adult baptisms, receptions of non-Catholics into the Catholic faith, and of course, First Holy Communion, etc. which were witnessed during my tenue in such numbers as was never witnessed before. Again, many who initially attacked me for daring to tell you to stop depending on the so-called chômage and CPAS and go find a job, later secretly went for various formations, and are now gainfully employed. Some of such people have even gone back to Africa to bring their families; something they couldn’t have done under the chômage or CPAS policy. You have indeed demonstrated that you now know the essential teachings of the church as well as citizenship. For this, we thank God. But in the light of our interpretation of the encounter between Jesus and the scribe in the gospel of today, I would like to end my mandate in this community by saying to you, “You are not far from the kingdom of God”.