Not That Simple

𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇 𝟏𝟑, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔: 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐃 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐓

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝟏: 𝐇𝐨𝐬 𝟏𝟒:𝟐-𝟏𝟎

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐦: 𝐏𝐬𝐚 𝟖𝟏:𝟔-𝟏𝟏, 𝟏𝟒-𝟏𝟕 “𝐈 𝐚𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐆𝐨𝐝; 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐦𝐲 𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞.”

𝐆𝐎𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋: 𝐌𝐤 𝟏𝟐:𝟐𝟖-𝟑𝟒

𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞: “𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐟𝐚𝐫 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐝𝐨𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝐆𝐨𝐝.” (𝐯.𝟑𝟒) 

          Could you imagine what life would be had Jesus not stepped into our world. Has it ever occurred to you that your life will revolve around 613 precepts in the Law that you need to observe – 365 negative precepts and 248 positive precepts. And the teachers of the Law in the time of Jesus love to discuss which of these commandments was the greatest.

          I could just imagine the surprise written in the faces of the Scribes when one of their kind asked Jesus which of the commandments was the greatest. And the Lord quoted from 𝐃𝐞𝐮𝐭 𝟒-𝟓 which referred to the great confession of faith that the Jews even today recite every morning and evening.

          This is what they call the “𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐚” from the first word of the confession which means “hear.” From there, Jesus quoted 𝐋𝐞𝐯 𝟏𝟗:𝟏𝟖 which emphasizes love for one’s neighbor and Jesus made love the most important thing in life, because love is the fulfillment of the entire Law (𝐑𝐨𝐦 𝟏𝟑:𝟖-𝟏𝟎).

          What Jews wanted to impart was that if we love God, we will experience His love within and will express that love to others. As such, we do not and should not live by rules but by relationships, a loving relationship to God that enables us to have a loving relationship with others.

          Anyone who understands and observes what the Gospel passage today prescribes, already has his left foot planted on the gates to the Kingdom of God because faith alone will not bring us anywhere near the Kingdom of God. Faith that is accompanied by action is what will qualify us to enter God’s presence.

         The journey to heaven has two important components – one is faith that is anchored on what we believe in and the other is the action that should spring forth from that faith that we have. And this is presented very clearly in our Gospel passage for today where we see Jesus quoting from the Shema (𝐃𝐭 𝟔:𝟒-𝟗; 𝟏𝟏:𝟏𝟑-𝟐𝟏) but he said this was not enough as he added 𝐋𝐞𝐯 𝟏𝟗:𝟏𝟖 “𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐛𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟” stressing that there is no greater commandment than these two.

         Many people find the first prescription to be simple because loving God whom we know to be a forgiving God is probably easy. The hard part is to make this love manifest in the way that we relate to our neighbors. Let’s face it not everyone is lovable that we are easily drawn to loving them, but this is just what Jesus said in our Gospel today and we don’t have a choice.

         Weakened by sin we are like someone who is nursing a broken leg and unable to stand up straight that we need to use crutches for us to move around. We can liken these crutches to what Jesus was saying in today’s Gospel that we are to love God and our neighbor as well and to get to heaven we need both.

         What Jesus did in our Gospel today was that he merely simplified the 613 precepts related to the practice of the Jewish faith. Surprising as it may be, this was what the Jews were required to observe. The fact that these set of laws were given to Moses based on the days of the year and according to the generations of men – make it more mandatory for the Jews to follow.

         In time, even the religious leaders tried to make a distinction as to which of these were to be categorized as major laws and which were to be classified as minor laws. Some believed that all the 613 precepts were binding and this was what must have prompted one of the religious leaders to ask Jesus the question in this Gospel passage today.

          The great kings and prophets may have seen the difficulty of having such number of religious precepts, which was why in the course of time David reduced this to 𝟏𝟏 (𝐏𝐬𝐚 𝟏𝟓). Then the prophet Isaiah trimmed it down to six (𝐈𝐬𝐚 𝟑𝟑:𝟏𝟓). Again, Micah brought this down to three (𝐌𝐢𝐜 𝟔:𝟖) and Isaiah again reduced it to just two (𝐈𝐬𝐚 𝟓𝟔:𝟏) until the prophet Habakkuk reduced them to just one (𝐇𝐚𝐛 𝟐:𝟒).

         Actually it comes as a surprise why the religious leaders still asked Jesus the question as to which of the commandments was the most important because they knew their Old Testament Scripture to love God who is their one Lord (𝐃𝐭 𝟔:𝟒-𝟗; 𝟏𝟏:𝟏𝟑-𝟐𝟏), 𝐍𝐮𝐦 𝟏𝟓:𝟑𝟕-𝟒𝟏) was their creed or Shema and these three passages of the Shema are written in the phylacteries that devout Jews wore on their forehead and wrists when in prayer. As religious leaders they also knew what love of neighbor was all about because this was one of the laws of Moses (𝐋𝐞𝐯 𝟏𝟗:𝟏𝟖). 

         It was probable that they asked Jesus the question as to which of the commandments was the most important (𝐯.𝟐𝟖) because they knew that he was someone who spoke with authority (𝐌𝐤 𝟏:𝟐𝟏-𝟐𝟖) and possibly to guide them as to which of the divergent positions they were arguing was correct.

         Up to that time when Jesus answered, no other prophet or teacher before him had ever spoken who put these two commandments together and made them one “𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐡. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬: 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐛𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟.” (𝐯𝐯.𝟑𝟎-𝟑𝟏) His response simply meant that religion was all about loving God and loving men and that a man can only prove that he loves God if he also has love for his neighbor.

         And these are easier said than done and today we see nations saddled with hunger and famine, tribal wars, internal conflicts that have caused thousands of casualties. Even the religious sector has not been spared as divisions have crept into some churches and communities and all these may be due to our lack of love for God and for our neighbor or perhaps our ignorance to what these two commandments represent.

         The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that these two commandments are a representation of the Ten Commandments with love of God encapsulated in the first four of the commandments and love of neighbor covers the remaining six commandments.

         As deigned by God who gave us the Ten Commandments, the first is all about worship and fidelity; the second, respect; the third, service; and the fourth – respect for his representatives on earth. The other six commandments show our duty to our neighbor forbidding us to injure our neighbor in the fifth; honor his purity in the sixth; his property in the seventh; preserving and respecting his honor in the eighth; respecting his family in the ninth and tenth.

         And the Apostle John put it in a simpler way: “𝐀𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡.” (𝟏 𝐉𝐧 𝟑:𝟏𝟒) In other words, to love God is of great advantage and benefit to us because through it we are united to God here on earth with our minds enlightened, our will is strengthened and, we obtain pardon for our sins and we are assured of God’s presence in our lives: “𝐈𝐟 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐞, 𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐲 𝐦𝐲 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐌𝐲 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐦, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐢𝐦.” (𝐉𝐧 𝟏𝟒:𝟐𝟑) These are not just powerful words but it provides us with the inspiration to look towards the eternal reward that God has promised us.

         The CCC also says that without the love of God and of our neighbor no man can be saved. St. Augustine said that as we require two feet to walk, so must we have the love of God and of our neighbor if we want to reach heaven. As the bird cannot fly without two wings, so must we also be born aloft upon these two pinions if we want to soar up to heaven.

         As the Saints in heaven love God and one another, so must we also do the same here on earth if we desire to be in their company in heaven. We should, however, remember that by ourselves we are incapable of loving God and our neighbor and we can only do so through the gift of sanctifying Grace which is given to us if we will allow the Holy Spirit to take possession of our souls and spirits.

         And for this Grace to become operative in our lives, we need to dispossess ourselves of our human nature by dying on the cross with Christ so that we can be resurrected into a new life in him and with him that will be reflective of the image and likeness to which we have all been created. This means that since we have all been created from the same source, it follows that we are to love that which God has also created in his image and likeness.

(𝘌𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘺 - 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 13, 2026)