shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.
This is the first and the most important of the commandments. But after this there is another one very
similar to it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole Law and the Prophets are founded
on these two commandments.”
Reflection:
The religious authorities are now ganging up on Jesus. The Sadducees had
a showdown with Jesus. They came out worse at the encounter having been
silenced by the Lord’s grasp of the spirit of the Law. Now, the Pharisees are
going to challenge Jesus. They come prepared to test Him on some points of
the Law. Their aim is not to know the truth but to bring down Jesus. He is already an
irritant to their otherwise comfortable status quo in society. He cannot be
allowed to continue. And so they ask Him about the most important commandment
of all in the Law. And Jesus summed up the spirit of the law with only one word,
that is, love. Any people of goodwill should love God and his or her neighbor. The
law of love is the supreme law of all. That is why St. Augustine said, “love and
do what you will.”
© Copyright Bible Diary 2021