The greatest commandment of God
Today is the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time and the gospel reading today is a very short one, but it gives us a Commandment that God ordained for all who believe in him whether you are a Christian or a Jew. You can find this scripture reading in Matt.22: 34-40.
"34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
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What we heard in today's gospel reading is what our Jewish brethren know as the Shema Prayer. The first verse of the Shema is a declaration of the Faith of a devout Jew, that the Lord is our God and the Lord is one. The Jews recite, "She-ma Yisrael,Adonai Eloheinu,Adonai Echad" translated to English, "Hear O' Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One."
What we learned in today's gospel is the Lord Jesus Christ was a devout Jew and when asked by an expert of the law what was the greatest commandment, our Lord responded to the question perfectly to love your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your mind, which is the Shema Prayer.
To us human beings, love is an emotion whose intensity can vary from object to object. You may love to smoke or drink or love watching a movie, but it gets more intense when you associate this love with a girlfriend or boyfriend. This love for another human being is called "Eros" or sensual love where the word "erotic" comes from. But to love God with all our heart and mind is something different as you cannot equate this kind of love into emotion, more so that you are commanded to love a God whom you cannot see. There is also filial love or brotherly love for a friend and storge love between family members.
But to love God is called Agape, which is a selfless, unconditional and sacrificial type of love. God's love for sinful man means he loves us regardless of our sinfulness, which is an unconditional type of love. This brings us to the Ten Commandments of God which God handed down on stone tablets to Moses, which we read in Exodus 20:3, "I am the Lord thy God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
So it is time for all of us who profess to be Christians or Catholics to ask how deeply we love God. Perhaps I should rephrase that question and ask "Do we love other gods other than God?" Time for you to go on a soul-searching journey and examine yourself, which is more important to you? Is your business more important to you? Is your girlfriend or boyfriend or your material possessions more important to you? This you must think for yourself, whether God is of any importance in your life.
Knowing how difficult it is for a man to love a God that cannot be seen, the Lord gave a second commandment which goes, "And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." No doubt God knows the heart of human beings, after all we are created in his likeness and image. Hence he knew that loving God (agape) is difficult for man, so he had a second commandment for man to love his neighbor as himself. So if you cannot even love your fellowman like yourself, how can you even dare to think of loving a God whom we cannot see?
So whether we like it or not, when we have accomplished so much, yet we still find an empty void within us. It is a natural feeling for men to long for his creator. This is what St. Augustine meant when he said, "My heart is restless until it finds its rest in Thee!"
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