Jewish Rabbis counted 613 separate and individual statutes in the Law and attempted to differentiate between heavy and light commands. We human beings are given to complicating things. Jesus, however, is given to simplifying things, making them easier for us to understand.
Quoting from Deuteronomy 6:4 and Leviticus 19:18 he gives us a breath-taking and utterly divine compression of the central tenets of both Jewish and Christian faith. The first quotation came to be known as the Shema, named after the opening word of Deuteronomy 6:4 which means literally ‘hear’. The Shema was recited by devout Jews every morning and evening, and to this day every synagogue service begins with this prayer. We would do well to learn it: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.
We can use the Shema today and examine our conscience. Do we love the Lord our God with all our soul, all our mind and all our strength? St. Thomas Aquinas wrote: ‘Therefore in the love of God no measurement is proposed beyond which it is not fitting to proceed; but no matter how much anyone loves, he will always love further, and for this reason it is said that there is no pre-fixed measure beyond which it is not fitting to progress.’ In other words – we can’t love God or our neighbour enough. Our next question must then be: how do we love God? We love God by seeking to be with him – in prayer, by reading his Word and spending time with him in the Blessed Sacrament. Some may protest and say, ‘Yes, yes, I know I must pray and do these things, but I must also love my neighbour.’
Noble and impressing as this may appear it is not the complete picture. We can only love our neighbour because we love God. ‘But if we are to love our neighbours as we ought, we must have regard to God also: for it is only in God that we can pay the debt of love aright. Now a man cannot love his neighbour in God, except he loves God himself; wherefore we must love God first, to love our neighbour in him’ (St. Thomas Aquinas).
