Dt 6:2-6; Ps 17; Heb 7:23-28; Mk 12:28b-34

The Kingdom of God has become so close that now men and women are able to welcome him, to believe in his promise, to convert to his logic. It is what happens to the scribe about whom Mark tells us today, whom Jesus can assure: “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” In fact, he knows that the kingdom is the love of God that comes into our lives, the plasma that unifies, replenishing all the dimensions and faculties of our existence: Heart, soul, mind, forces… and also all our relationships: you will love your neighbor as your self. To love God and to love the other, concludes the Scribe, is worth more than all burnt offering and sacrifices. Indeed, suggests the Letter to the Hebrews, it constitutes the truth and efficacy of the one and definitive sacrifice, the one with which the Lord Jesus loved us by offering himself completely on the cross, still continuing to intercede for us sinners. Believing and understanding all this also allows us to be close to the kingdom of God. What is still missing? Deuteronomy and Hebrews remind us: that this word is fixed in the heart so that we are able to live, in our own time, by offering ourselves.

Commentary by Comunità di Dumenza

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey