Today's Reflections
The Greatest Commandment
Mt 22:34-40
34When the Pharisees heard that [Jesus] had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35and one of them [a scholar of the law] tested him by asking, 36“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
37He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38This is the greatest and the first commandment. 39The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
A COMMANDMENT SO CLOSE TO US.
Because of their reverence for the Torah (Scriptures), the learned and
the pious rabbis of Israel study it thoroughly. They even count the
number of words in it and point to the word that lies exactly in the
middle. And they also count the laws and commandments.
Rabbis
love discussions on the commandments, and following this tradition a
scribe (one who studies or is an expert on the Torah) in today’s Gospel
engages the “Rabbi Jesus” in one. Indeed, there are so many
commandments, and so Jesus reduces them to one, however, with two parts.
But unlike Habakkuk, Jesus first quotes Moses and the so-called 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” (Dt 4:4-5).
In
pointing to the Shema, Jesus is saying that the first of the commands
is already on the lips of the Jews, because they recite it twice a day
as a profession of faith and as a prayer. If they love the Lord God with
their whole being, they will experience their faith as “air that they
breathe”: as grace to be embraced and as their deepest joy while they
follow the other commandments in the Law. Without this love, following
the Law becomes burdensome.
Jesus
makes the love of neighbor part and parcel of the commandment of love,
plucking it out of the anonymity of Lv 19 and giving it the priority it
deserves. Our love for God does not bring us into an exclusive
relationship. Rather, love diffuses; it goes out and brings others into
the circle of love. We show our love for God by loving fellow human
beings as we love ourselves.
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