November 20, 2022
Gsopel – 6/4/20 – Mark 12:28-34
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
“Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Jesus replied, “The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, 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 scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
He is One and there is no other than he.
And to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Pretty straight forward stuff today.
We love God first. He created us and nothing should draw us away. The World tries but everything here is passing away. As St Paul said in his second letter to the Corinthians, “. . . we look not to what is seen, but to what is unseen; because, what is seen is transitory, what is unseen is eternal.”
The next is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Anything we do for ourselves, we must be willing to do for our neighbor.
How prescient a commandment in view of this world we live in today.
Our neighbors aren’t who we choose. Jesus’ definition is any other human – regardless of any differences.
There is a bit of a juxtaposition here. What happens when our neighbors make it so difficult to love them? If, you’re constantly yelling your demands, my human nature is to close you off. How would I feel about myself if that was me?
We should never love ourselves to the detriment of our souls.
We really aren’t THAT important.
At least that’s what I heard Him say…
What I Heard Him Say 