From the Holy Gospel according to Matthew (22:34-40):
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law tested him by asking, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."
In this week’s gospel Jesus recalls the two commandments upon which the Law and the Prophets depend: love God with your whole heart, your whole soul, and with your whole mind; and then to love your neighbour as yourself. How many times have we repeated them or taught them to others without– perhaps– really asking ourselves what we must do to put them into practice? In this regard it is interesting to read what St. John M. Vianney said:
“Why, my brothers, does the Lord give us a commandment to love him with all our hearts: that is, without division, in the way in which he himself loves us; with all our soul and with all our strength…? For two reasons: to show us the greatness of his Love; and because we will not be able to be happy if not by loving him. And, in essence, this love is only found in the fulfillment of his Commandments… If we want to be happy in this world– at least as far as it is possible to be– we have no other means than to faithfully observe God's commandments.”
Sr. Stella Maria