Once again this week the Pharisees attempt to entrap Jesus in his own words by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”

Jesus replied, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and the first commandment.  The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

We are familiar with the pairing of these two commandments because we have grown up hearing them together in this way.  At the time, and traditionally, Jewish scholars commonly argued about the merits and priority of the commandments, of which there are 613 in the Mishneh Torah.  We are only familiar with 10 commandments. Jesus cites the greatest and first commandment (Deut. 6:5) “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart,…” and then places the second commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Lev 19:18) on a similar level.  In doing this Jesus has moved morality forward in one giant leap!

Hold onto these two commandments while you read the first (Exodus 22:20-26) and second (Thes. 1:5c-10, from the first Letter of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians) readings for this Sunday,  then ask yourself these questions:

1.  Do I love the Lord with all my heart, all my soul and all my mind?

If not, what prevents me from loving the Lord? 

What in my life prevents me from having a close relationship with God?

How can I strengthen my love for God and my personal relationship with God?

2.  Do I love my neighbor as myself?

Do I recognize the needs of others and do I respond to those needs? 

If not, what prevents me from responding to the needs of others? 

What prevents me from forgiving others?

3.  Am I a model for others in my Christianity?

Does my outward appearance and demeanor reflect my love of God?

Do I help others?

Do I respect others?

Do I forgive others as I want God to forgive me?

What things in my life prevent me from being a model of Christianity and spreading the Gospel through my own example?

Our personal relationship with God and our directive to spread the Gospel are all summed up in this Sunday’s readings.  There are perfect examples of being welcoming to aliens (this can literally mean people from other places, or people who are different in any way or just new in our community), caring for one another and treating people with fairness and compassion that we can put to use in our daily lives.  Our God treats us in these ways and we count on his love, his forgiveness, his compassion and his generosity.  If we love one another as God loves us we must treat each other exactly as God treats us.

The Psalm this week is Psalm 18: I Love You, Lord, My Strength

Have a blessed week as you love and serve the Lord!