The greatest commandment
DwrittenEVOUT Jews of the Old Testament were obligated to follow about 613 laws in the Torah or Pentateuch – the first five books of the Bible consisting of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
In this Sunday’s gospel (Matthew 22:34-40), a scholar of the law, wanting to test Jesus, asks, “Teacher which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Why is this a test? Because the answer may reflect Jesus’ appreciation or valuing of the Law. If he cites a particular law, it would elevate that law as superior compared to other laws, when in fact, all laws are important in the eyes of God.
St. James (in Chapter 2, Verses 10-11) writes, “For whoever keeps the whole law but falls short in one particular, has become guilty in respect to all of it. For he who said, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘You shall not kill.’
Even if you do not commit adultery but kill, you have become a transgressor of the law.” So how did Jesus answer this scheming question? He taught the greatest commandment by citing two verses from the Torah itself – “to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might (Deuteronomy 6:5),” and “to love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18).
Further, he concluded that the whole law and the writings of the prophets depend on
So we left, feeling bad. I didn't know yet how to identify how I felt then, but now I know I felt cheated that time. On Christmas season. We had sang our hearts out, and the people in that large house with the wreath and the fireplace had carelessly broken them. Hahaha. By not giving us a few coins.
But it was more than that. For eager young kids just getting to grasp the concept of Santa and the season of giving and being merry, getting ignored after belting Christmas carols no matter how out of tune we may have been is not the model way to be treated by adults. They could have probably just told us to go goal is the “Good Health”. Health is a person‘s mental and physical condition; thus the goal “Good Health” aims for individual’s stable state of their mindsets and bodies. This idea brought up by the United Nations can be interrelated by two significant economics concepts.
Economic growth is one of the five macroeconomics objectives which target for an increase in GDP. A positive externality is a benefit that is enjoyed by a third-party, a person not part of an economic transaction.
When people get high-quality medical provisions from the government and begin to have a stable health condition, an improvement in their efficiency is likely to be occurred. For instance, one statistics in Seoul University, located in South Korea, is telling that individuals who exercise more than four hours a week are capable of making more progress with their work tasks and are paid higher than those people who do not work out.
Since using muscles is an effective way to clear out one’s mindset and become healthier by gaining more stamina, there is an evident correlation between one’s health and their income. Hence, an increase in GDP occurs due to high income of laborers. Then one can say that one macroeconomics objective is achieved by the “Good Health.”
Imagine a situation where your colleague keeps on smiling and seems very happy one day. There is high possibility that you and your other colleagues become even happier than your smiling colleague.
There is a study stating that happiness is like a virus – spreading out to nearby people from a “host”. Like this, a positive externality rises when these two commandments. So revealing of God’s wisdom was Jesus’ answer that we are left with asking how these two most important commandments can be put into practice. How should we love God and how should we love our neighbor? To love God is to obey him. The Lord, in John 14:23, says, “Whoever loves me will keep my word...” St. John also writes, “Children, let us love not in word or speech, but in deed and truth.”
Obedience is truly an important manifestation of our love for God, so much so that he said, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). To love our neighbor is to do them no harm or evil (Romans 13:10).
The Golden Rule comes to mind, “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:31)” which, in the negative sense, would be, “Do not do to others what you do not want others do to you.”
More than passive avoidance of evil, however, love of neighbor must also be expressed in actively doing good. It must show itself in concrete positive action.
The first reading (Exodus 22:20-26) enumerates some suggestions to love our neighbor in home, but letting us sing our throats hoarse was mean.
The next year, we were going caroling again, determined to ignore the large house with the wreath and the fireplace.
There was no need. One of the typhoons of that year must have caused a landslide, and that house fell. All that was left was a small pond beside a fireplace.
Chiara texts me she's done with her eyebrows retouch. She's always had a difficulty shaping her own, so she has them done once every four months
My thoughts fall to eyebrows. It's amazing how their shape can alter one's facial expression, or add softness or elegance to one's face. Eyebrow shaping has spawned an industry, the goal of “Good Health” is achieved. It is said that one who maintains his/her healthy state experiences more happiness than others.
Thus the “Good Health” also affects a thirdparty with a positive externality although they are failed to directly accomplish the UN’s Millennium Development Objective.
These two outcomes, eventually, would benefit an economy of a society in a great magnitude. It is believed that a country can economically develop from achieving this goal just like how the economically developed countries like Sweden or Norway that are providing good healthcare service to their citizens.
However, a concern arises because tremendous amount of budgets is required to reach the goal of the “Good Health”. Therefore, the United Nations (or even ordinary people like us) should discover an effective, innovative, and economical way to improve the health conditions of the whole society.
-o0oThe last essay for this series under the UN Development Goals was written by Patrick Valero. He talked about the goal, No Poverty.
There are seventeen UN Millennium Goals, one of the goals that stands out to me is “No Poverty”. This stands out to me among the rest in my opinion because this is a very common problem especially in third-world economies such as the Philippines which the country is facing as of today.
Therefore, using applied concepts of economics such as redistribution of income and reducing unemployment could help achieve the “No Poverty” Millennium goal.
Redistribution of income is the transfer of income and of wealth equitably to the people of one country through mechanisms such as taxa- the context of ancient Israel, that is, not to molest or oppress an alien, not to wrong widows and orphans, not to lend money like an extortioner by demanding interest, and to return a cloak taken as a pledge before sunset.
Jesus, in the New Testament, tells us that whatsoever we do to the least of our brothers, that, we do unto him (Matthew 25:40). Thus, whenever we feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome a stranger, clothe a naked, care for the sick and visit a prisoner, we are actually expressing our love not only to our neighbor but to God himself.
Side by side with these corporal works of mercy, the Church has listed the so-called spiritual works, namely: to counsel the doubtful, to instruct the ignorant, to admonish the sinner, to comfort the sorrowful, to forgive injuries, to bear wrongs patiently, and to pray for each other. At the end of our days, God will judge us based on how much and how well we have lived up to these two most important commandments.
It will not always be easy but our help is in the name of Jesus – the Son of God who will deliver us from the coming wrath (Second Reading – 1Thessalonians 1:5c-10) and who is also our strength, rock, fortress, deliverer, shield and horn of salvation (Responsorial Psalm; Psalm 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51). SSpampanga and there are scores of sites and posts, some quite humorous, about them.
Did you know that in face Feng Shui, gullibility can be gauged by the space between one's eyebrows? Aa says that unibrows can mean blockages. Scars around the brow area can depict a traumatic event at some point in one's life. Moles around the eyebrows, depending on where they are on the face, can mean intelligence, or hidden talents. I'll probably cover moles in another article. See us at #29 Sari-sari Section, Baguio City Market, open from 4:30 to 6:30 from Monday to Saturday. tion, and welfare.
All money earned and spent undergo the mechanical process paying taxes and the taxes go to the government and these taxes will be siphoned back to the poor people as part of the redistribution process.
By doing this, this will help the poor achieve their goals and to aim high in life because the lack of money can diminish their self-esteem. Using these concepts of equitable redistribution of income help improve not only the economy of the country but also to achieve the goal of reducing poverty.
Aside from the redistribution of income, reducing unemployment is another aspect of my argument to reduce poverty. Reducing unemployment could help reduce poverty through supplyside policy such as free training for those individuals who are structurally unemployed.
Poverty and unemployment are usually geographical problems with depressed areas like for example, in Metro Manila, there are lots of depressed areas which we can conclude that there are higher levels of poverty.
Also, building better infrastructure in depressed areas such as Metro Manila can help provide an economic stimulus to establish new jobs. These policies that help improve reduce unemployment are essential to reducing poverty in third-world countries such as the Philippines to be a better-off economy as well.
These economic concepts mentioned above can help reduce poverty, namely the redistribution of income, reducing unemployment and building better infrastrusture. Without these economic concepts in my opinion, we cannot meet the UN Millennium goals which is to have no poverty especially when dealing with third-world economies.