The problem with a familiar text is that it’s so easy not to listen to it. Oh yeah, I say to myself, I know this Gospel, and I stop paying attention.

Part of the familiarity of this particular Gospel is because the same question-and-answer occurs in all three synoptic Gospels: in Matthew (22:34-40), in today’s passage from Mark and in Luke (10:25-28ff). Not surprisingly, each Evangelist uses the story in a different way. In Luke, it occurs early in the Gospel, during the “travel narrative” or account of Jesus’ teaching as he makes his way toward Jerusalem, and it sets up the also familiar parable of the Good Samaritan.

Matthew and Mark, on the other hand, place this exchange later in the story, and the stakes are higher. Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem and is teaching in the temple days before his death. In Matthew and Mark, the question about the first, or greatest, commandment is the climax of a series of challenges that seem to seal Jesus’ fate.

But only in Mark does Jesus answer his challenger with the entire passage from the Book of Deuteronomy. These verses are familiar too, especially to observant Jews who recite them daily as the prayer known as the Shema: Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. Or, as our translation of today’s Gospel has it, Hear O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!

How often—especially if we happen to be parents or teachers—do we preface giving directions with some version of “Listen up!”? In the kindergarten classroom, I would call out “One-two-three, eyes on me!” and wait for a room full of busy five-year-olds to stop whatever they were doing, turn to me, and answer “One-two, eyes on you!” Only then would I tell them what they were supposed to do next.

More elegantly, but just as effectively, the first words of ‘the great commandment’ invite us to do just that. Hear O Israel. Pause, turn your full attention toward God, listen for God’s voice. Only then can you move on to what comes next.

This is hard enough to do on a good day. It’s much harder now. A steady stream of news reports about spreading contagion and economic disaster, an overflow of information and advice, and rising tides of anxiety and fear compete to drown out everything. The stakes are high for us, too. And into all this cacophony and confusion, today’s Gospel speaks a word that reminds us to stop: Hear O Israel.

Before all else, before any commandment is given, we are called to stop. To listen. To pay attention. Then we might hear the timely reminder of today’s Gospel: our life, our faith, our love of God and neighbor—all of this begins and ends with the One who (in the words of the prophet Hosea) loves us freely and desires above all else that we also love with everything we’ve got. Hear O Israel!  — BJ Brown

Each day’s readings are available here at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website.