Hey, Listen!

When I was in fifth grade, I played The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64. It was a really great game. It is still sometimes rated among the best games ever made, especially when the list is made by somebody about my age. It had an interesting story, puzzles that were challenging enough that you could feel clever for solving them, but still easy enough that an 11-year-old could solve them with minimal hints from Nintendo Power magazine, boss battles that felt dramatic, great music and a much larger world than many other games of the time. The only two small negatives I remember about it are the Water Temple being kind of tedious, and the seemingly constant interjections of “Hey, Listen!” As far as I remember, this was the only spoken text in the game: most of the story was told through text that you read with sound effects like the villain laughing in the background. “Hey, Listen!” would be said by a fairy named Navi who travels with the main character throughout the game. It was used as an indication that there was something the developers of the game wanted to call your attention to: usually a small hint or a note about the controls for the game. The problem was it continued even after you had been playing the game for several hours and already knew the controls, and didn’t want to read the hints.

Today’s first reading gives a kind of equivalent to “Hey, Listen!” Moses tells the people, “Hear, O Israel.” In Hebrew, this is “Shema Yisrael” and this prayer is called the Shema. “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” Our first reading ends a sentence later, but the passage in Deuteronomy continues with the instruction “Keep repeating (these words) to your children. Recite them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them on your arm as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.” Moses wants this command to be so ingrained in the people that it becomes instinctual. He wants them surrounded by this reminder, as “Hey, Listen!” can surround you in Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Moses wants this to become the core of Israel’s identity: they are the people of the one God, and they are to love that God with all their heart, with all their soul and with all their strength.

The setting for this is one of the most important points in Israel’s history. The Israelites have been wandering through the desert for 40 years. They are on the verge of entering the Promised Land. Moses is one of the only adults left from the generation that had left Egypt 40 years earlier, and made a Covenant with God at Mount Sinai. He needs to remind the people of the Covenant they made, and establish the most important laws that will allow them to live as a nation in the Promised Land.

In practice, this did not really work. The people regularly fell into idolatry, worshiping other gods. They forgot the God who had brought them to the Promised Land, and were exiled to Babylon. After they returned, “Hear, O Israel!” “Hey, Listen!” served as a common background to Jewish life. Interestingly, I’m not sure if it was intentional or not, the word Navi, the name given to the annoying fairy who gives constant reminders in the game, is the same as the Hebrew word for Prophet, the word used for those who reminded Israel about this commandment: those who reminded the people of Israel to love the Lord, their God. As with Navi’s reminders, the prophets were not often seen as annoyances.

By Jesus’ time, the Shema, the “Hear, O Israel!” had become the central profession of faith for Israel. Some Jews of Jesus’ time took the injunction to bind the words of the Shema on their arm and have it as a pendant on their forehead literally: they would wear “Tefillin” - small boxes with a little scroll in them that included the text of the Shema during prayer. This practice continues in many Jewish communities today. When the scribe asks Jesus what the first commandment is, and Jesus repeats the Shema, he is saying something that would be immediately recognized by the scribe and all those listening to Jesus.

This should also serve as a reminder for us, as we hear this passage. “Hear, O Israel!” “Hear, O Portsmouth!” "Hey, Listen!” Jesus is telling us the first of all the commandments. Jesus is telling us the most important thing to take out of the entire Old Testament. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. But Jesus does not end there. This statement is not enough on its own. Jesus adds a phrase from the book of Leviticus: you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

The scribe asked for only one commandment, and Jesus gave him two, but, really, they are the same commandment from different points of view. These two commandments cannot be separated. Our love for our neighbors, our love for all those we interact with, is rooted in our love for God. God made them in his image and likeness, so we must love them. Our love for God is proven by our love for our neighbor. We love our neighbors, demonstrating our love for the God who made them. The scribe himself immediately recognizes this insight: to love God and to love your neighbor is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. This is particularly notable, because this conversation takes place in the area around the Temple: at the location where the burnt offerings and sacrifices of Israel were made. The scribe recognizes the incompleteness of what the Levitical priests at the Temple are able to do, something pointed out in the second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews. This scribe is not far from the kingdom of God. The sacrifices and burnt offerings at the Temple are incomplete because those offering the sacrifices, the Levitical priests, are imperfect. They cannot offer a perfect sacrifice of love.

A few days after Jesus talks with this Scribe, on Good Friday, the perfect sacrifice, offered by the perfect Priest, would take place. Jesus would offer himself on the cross. The same sacrifice that is made present in this Mass. Through this sacrifice, Jesus would demonstrate what following this commandment of love looks like. Jesus offers himself to allow all human beings to be freed from the corruption of sin and death. The eternal high priest demonstrates the highest form of love of God and love of neighbor: the gift of Himself offered for all of us, even though we are sinners: even though our actions continue to turn us against God.

So, “Hey, Listen!” This Gospel is the most direct communication of what we are to do and how we are to live given by Jesus. The essential reminder of what we are to do and how we are to act. This is very important information without which we cannot successfully complete the journey of life. We must love the Lord our God with all our souls, with all our minds and with all our strength. We must love our neighbor as ourselves. Each of us must give ourselves first to God, who has a plan for our life. In light of this gift of ourselves to God, each of us must also give ourselves to our neighbors, to all those we see and interact with, to all those created by God in His image and likeness: to all those who share in our journey through life. When we fail and fall into sin, we must return to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the High Priest who can take away our sins. We must learn from and imitate His life. And we must Listen to Him.