When the scribe asks Jesus about the greatest commandment, Jesus gets straight to the heart of everything.  He quotes the Shema prayer that the Jews recited many times a day: “The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.  Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5).  That is the first commandment.  As God’s children, made in his image and likeness, we are to love him above everything.

Jesus doesn’t stop there.  Our love for God is not meant to be static or theoretical.  Our relationship with him should be the foundation for everything else in our lives.  It should bear fruit in the way we treat everyone created in God’s image and likeness and especially in the way in which we relate to other people.  And so Jesus adds this second commandment: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31).

We may want Jesus to give us some new way to become holy or a fresh spirituality or a challenging mission.  But we can love God and our neighbor right where we are now.  We can honor the image and likeness of God in the person right in front of us.  We can take care of the most vulnerable of his children.  We can show mercy just as he does.  It’s simple, and it’s “worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mark 12:33).  And we might even love our enemies.

courtesy parishioner Fred Bangeman

edited from a meditation in The Word Among Us