“WHICH is the first of all commandments?” Jesus was asked. Jesus was a Jew and he knew his scriptures. He quoted the scriptures, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall 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, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
The first commandment calls us to love God totally with our whole selves - heart, soul, mind and strength. Jesus invites us to return to what is really important in our relationship with God - a love that trusts. The first commandment is actually the “Shema” or daily declaration of faith of the Jewish people.
The first verse of the Shema, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one...” is considered the most essential declaration of the Jewish faith. The verse that follows shows how that faith in one God is lived out: Love God with all of your being, teach it to your children, recite it when you wake and lie down, bind it as a symbol on your body. This is very important to the Jews that they have these words written on pieces of cloth and tied around their arms or attached to their clothes to remind them all the time.
In the beginning for the Jewish people -- he neighbor is only the person who belongs to their tribe or family. And so Jesus challenged them and challenges us today to love like God - to love without conditions or without boundaries. The reality of neighbor is expanded beyond color or creed.
The two commandments are one. We can sometimes forget that to love God is equal to loving our neighbor. Jesus wanted to show the people that you cannot love God alone without loving your neighbor.
When we go to church and pray every Sunday but the rest of the week we do nothing to help our neighbor - the sick, the widow, the prisoner, and the drug-addict, our love of God is meaningless. Our love of God only becomes real when it is expressed to our neighbors. The first and second commandments are like two legs - we can only walk properly if we have both.
Laws and commandments in the Old Testament are questions on holiness. When the scribe asked Jesus, he was probably getting confused with the variety of laws and regulations stipulated in the scriptures about holiness. He asked Jesus, “Which is the first of all commandments?”
According to Leviticus (19:2) God’s holiness consists a basic ground for the moral behavior: “You shall be holy for I am Holy, the Lord your God!” In the gospel according to Matthew, Jesus concluded, “Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (5:48). He asked of his followers the perfection of love. Love is the synthesis of the new law he brought. He redefined the reality of neighbor.
Pope Francis reminds everyone in his Apostolic Exhortation, “Gaudete et Exsultate” that holiness is not the monopoly of saints or of the religious sisters or the priests - holiness is a call for everyone. You are called to be holy. To love God and to love your neighbor is to walk on the path of holiness. In his letter or exhortation, Pope Francis offers five great expressions of love of God and of neighbor: perseverance, patience and meekness; joy and a sense of humour; boldness and passion; community; and constant prayer. These are signs of true holiness allowing us to be living witnesses of holiness today.
The Pope also believes that holiness is essential to our happiness. Rejoice and be glad! He encourages and challenges us on the path to holiness because holiness is necessary for our happiness –to bring out the best in us.
One of my favorite saints, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, once said, “Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.” It doesn’t take much to be holy for to be holy is to be more fully human and more fully alive. Try it!