St. Augustine of Canterbury Parish
Theme:
“Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a
second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments
hang all the law and the prophets.’” (Matthew 22:37-40)
Our lives rest on hope, expectations, faith, aspirations, perseverance, success, hard work,
etc. In today’s Gospel Jesus says the law (guidelines) and all the prophet (words) of the
Bible rest on the greatest, the first and the second commandments.
The law in the Bible is made of all the guidelines, precepts, principles, and the recipes for
life that God revealed to humanity over the course of time. One of the greatest recipes of
life is, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and
with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). It is a recipe because it is necessary to make life
good and complete. When we love God with all our heart, with all and soul, and with all
our mind, then we are following the greatest recipe of life. And whenever our life hangs
on the greatest principle and recipe of life, we can be sure that we are on the right path of
life in God. Whenever our life rests on the greatest commandment, then we can be sure
we are counted among the greatest model and exemplar of the heart, soul and mind of life
in God.
When one of the Pharisees, a lawyer by profession (Matthew 22:35), came over to ask
Jesus a question, the lawyer did not intend to be part of the greatest commandment. The
lawyer did not have the heart, the soul, and the mind of the greatest commandment.
Rather the lawyer intended to test and trick Jesus. He asked a staggering question but
Jesus gave him a stabilizing response. Is it possible that these days, this kind of partial
heart, soul and mind of this lawyer (Pharisee in Matthew 22:34-35) take control of the
way we live in the world?
Is possible that we walk through life just to test God or to test God’s followers with
similar partial questions instead giving all our heart, all our soul and all our mind to love
God? Is it possible that we walk through life just with partial heart, partial soul, and
partial mind? In this weekend’s Gospel, Jesus is reminding us that everyone of us is
called to walk through life in the greatest way with all his/her heart, with all his/her soul
and with all his/her mind. This way, we honor the greatest commandment, we honor the
greatest heart, soul and mind, and we honor the recipes or principles of the law and the
prophets in the Bible.
We become part of the greatest commandment on which hang all the prophets whenever
we follow all the messages, the revelations, the word, the prophecies, the pieces of
advice, etc. that God gives to us with the greatest disposition and quality of our heart,
soul and mind. Will anyone of us be happy if people listen to our messages with only
partial heart, partial soul, or partial mind? No. Everyone is happy when people listen to
their words or messages with all the heart, with all the soul, and with all the mind. God
also is happy whenever we listen to him and his words with all our heart, with all our soul
and with all our mind. We become part of the greatest word of God, whenever we listen
to and love his words with the greatest disposition of our heart, our soul and our mind.
The second greatest commandment requires that “You shall love your neighbor as
yourself” (Matthew 22:39). The law and all the prophets summon all humanity to love
God with the greatest disposition, and to love neighbor as oneself. Our neighbor is
anyone in our proximity or anyone in our lives. Whenever we love our neighbor as
ourselves, we honor the greatest heart, soul and mind with which God created and put
into the universe every human person. And every human person is called to be part of the
greatest commandment of God. So God has created us to be part of his greatest
commandment. We cannot love our neighbor in a partial way just as we cannot love God
with a partial heart, or soul or mind. Just as Jesus gave a greatest stabilizing answer to a
staggering partial question of a lawyer (Pharisee), God gave each human person stable
and strong heart, soul and mind to love him, and to love his/her neighbor so that we build
up the greatest principle (law) and the greatest word (prophets) in the world.