"You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul,
and with all your mind.” Mt. 22:37
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is challenged by yet another group of doubting Pharisees to identify the “greatest commandment.” Jesus replies with an Old Testament passage which is well known to the Hebrews as the Shema prayer: “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one! And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Dt 6:4-5) The Jews recited this prayer morning and night, wrote it on their doorposts, wore it on their foreheads, and taught it to their children.
Jesus continues His answer with the second great commandment, showing us the way to make our love for God into a reality. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This commandment also appears in many places in the Old Testament, one of which is heard in today’s first reading from the book of Exodus (22:20-26). In this passage, the Lord commands His people to offer kindness and help to the stranger, the orphan and widow, the poor and the most vulnerable.
By following God’s commandments with love and generosity, we touch the hand and heart of God. Each of us has the ability and the responsibility to respond to God’s call to love our neighbor. Is there someone in your life that needs your love, help, and acceptance? Do you know someone who is poor, alone, abandoned, or suffering? In what way can you reach out to that person, for love of Christ?
We no longer wear the words of the Shema on our foreheads, but Jesus has written these commandments on our hearts. Christians know that Jesus is present in every encounter with our neighbor. As Mother Teresa once said, we must seek “… the face of God in everything, everyone, all the time, and his hand in every happening… Seeing and adoring the presence of Jesus, especially in the lowly appearance of bread, and in the distressing disguise of the poor.”
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