Fr. George's Weekly Reflection

A scribe, a so-called scholar of the law, attempts to put Jesus to the test by asking him which commandment in the law is the greatest. This is a serious question and one which had been debated by the rabbis at the time of Jesus. The Torah was understood to contain 613 commandments.  Though the basic rule was that all the commandments deserved equal attention, that did not mean that they were all understood to have equal authority. Jesus quotes the famous Shema prayer in Deuteronomy 6:5 and correctly designates love of God with all one’s heart, soul and mind to be the greatest and first commandment.  This clearly shows that Judaism did not promote a narrow legalistic keeping of the law.  The love for God must be internalized, reaching the depth of a person’s being.  However, Jesus did not stop with the quote from Deuteronomy, he goes on to quote Leviticus 19:18 which states that one must love one’s neighbor as oneself.  Jesus then combines this commandment with the first one and declares that both together provide a programmatic statement of the whole law and the prophets. (Excerpted from St. Anthony Messenger Press)

Through the grace of the Eucharist may we all become more aware of Jesus’ command to love God with all one’s mind, heart, and soul and to love one another as we would want to be loved.

Especially in this day of instant communication, we are ever more aware of our neighbor, the catastrophes that befall them, and their needs.  Not only are we more aware, we are also more in a position to help---no matter the distance that separates us.  This becomes ever more a reality as we think about some of our more recent natural disasters: earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, tornadoes, etc.