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.
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Reflection:
Why did Jesus
give us these two timeless and greatest commandments about love? Because we
need these two instructions about love to heal the world of its many sufferings.
For example if only there’s authentic love for God in the hearts of the rich
there would be no more sufferings and hunger amongst the poor.
But many of
them don’t have the love of God in their hearts that’s why they continue to
oppress and take advantage of the poor. They love themselves more than God,
they love temporal power more than they love the people of God.
Let us hear
the command of God to us: Let us love Him with all our heart, mind and soul.
Let us also allow God to use us as his vehicle so that those who are alien to
the love of God would feel it through us. And those who don’t know God will
come to know God because of our unconditional love for them.
Let us little
by little conquer the enmity of this world with our love for God and for our
neighbors. And let us not only love those who will love us back or those who
are lovable to our eyes.
Let us also
love even those who are not lovable to our eyes for this is the true measure of
love. – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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