Year B – 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year B - 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Golden Rule

(Deut.6:2-6; Heb.7:23-28; Mk.12:28-34)

With so much violence and war around our world today, it’s worth remembering that the call to love our neighbour is actually universal.

They express it differently, but all the major religions – Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Judaism – share the same Golden Rule to love your neighbour.[i]

It’s there again in today’s Gospel, where Jesus spells out his two greatest commandments. The first, he says, is to love our Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And the second is to love your neighbour as yourself.

‘There’s no greater commandment than these,’ he says.

With these few words, Jesus has summarised the entire Bible and the essence of the Christian life. But why does he mention two commandments instead of one? It’s because loving God and loving our neighbour are two sides of the same life-giving coin (1Jn.4:7-8).

St Basil the Great used to say that we can only love our fellow human beings because we love God first. If we don’t love God, he said, we will never be open to enemies and strangers. And the only way we can fully express our love for God is by loving our neighbour who he created in his own image and likeness.

This is Jesus’ Great Commandment, which is also often called the Golden Rule because it sets the gold standard for how to live our lives. St James called it the Royal Law (Jas.2:8) because Jesus is our king, and love is the first law of his kingdom.

But whatever its name, the call to love our neighbour remains universal. And yet, so many people seem to ignore it these days. Perhaps they don’t know who their neighbours are, or they simply don’t know how to love. 

When he was the Archbishop of Milan, Pope St Paul VI spelt out the neighbours we should love. He said, ‘Let us love those nearby and those afar; love our own country and those others; love our friends and enemies; love Catholics, schismatics, Protestants, Anglicans, the indifferent; love Moslems, pagans, atheists; love members of all social classes, particularly those in most need of help and support; love children; love the old, the poor and the sick; love those who deride or despise us, obstruct or persecute us; love those who deserve love and those who do not; love our adversaries – we want no man as our enemy …’

‘Let us love and try to understand, esteem, appreciate, serve and suffer for (them),’ he continued. ‘Let us love (them) with the heart of Christ.’ [ii]

And how might we love with the heart of Christ? St Thérèse of Lisieux tells us in her autobiography, The Story of a Soul.

She found one nun in her convent particularly irritating. ‘The devil was mixed up in it,’ she wrote, ‘for he made me see so many disagreeable traits in her.’

St Therese of Lisieux

However, Therese did not want to give in to her natural dislike for this nun, so she told herself that charity isn’t just about feelings, but should also show itself in deeds.

She decided to do for this sister what she would have done for someone she loved.

Every time Thérèse met her, she prayed for this sister and she praised God for all her virtues and merits. She was sure this would delight Jesus, because every artist likes to have his works praised.  

As well, Thérèse tried to do as many things for her as she could, and whenever she was tempted to speak unpleasantly to her, she gave her a pleasant smile and tried to change the subject.

And when she found herself violently tempted by the devil, she slipped away quietly, like a soldier deserting the battlefield.

After all this, one day that sister asked Thérèse: ‘Please tell me what attracts you so much to me. You give me such a lovely smile whenever we meet.’

Thérèse answers this question in her book: ‘It was Jesus hidden in the depth of her soul who attracted me, for Jesus makes the bitterest things sweet!’ [iii]

And that’s the point. That’s why Jesus has given us his Golden Rule in two parts: that we must love both God and our neighbour.

As St Basil the Great said all those years ago – we cannot truly love God without also loving his Creation, which includes all our neighbours.

And we really cannot love our neighbours until we start recognising Jesus’ presence within them.


[i] In Islam, the Qur’an says, ‘Serve Allah… do good to your parents, to kinsfolk, to orphans, to the needy, to neighbours who are near and far, to the companion by your side, to the wayfarer… (Qur’an 4:36).

The Hindu tradition says, ‘This is the sum of duty. Do not unto others that which would cause you pain if done to you’ (Mahabharata 5,1517).

In Judaism, it’s ‘Love your neighbour as yourself – I am the Lord (Lev.19:18).

[ii] Cardinal Montini, quoted in Robert Morneau, A New Heart, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY, 1970:37.

[iii] St Thérèse of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul, https://lci-goroka.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/saint-therese-of-lisieux-story-of-a-soul-the-autobiography.pdf