Today’s Gospel presents a series of features that should be highlighted. It is an encounter between Jesus and a teacher of the law, but it is not a polemical encounter or one motivated by bad intentions on the part of the Pharisee, but a friendly encounter, in which the Pharisee teacher asks Jesus questions with genuine concern and interest in learning. The question the Pharisee poses to Jesus is a genuine concern: Which is the first of all the commandments? Indeed, in the law of Moses there are ethical or moral commandments such as the Ten Commandments, but there are also commandments to regulate the life of the community, which today we would call civil laws, and commandments of a liturgical and cultic type. Is there any hierarchy or order in these commandments? Is there one that gives meaning and coherence to all the others?
When Jesus responds, he quotes not one, but two commandments. One is taken from the book of Deuteronomy and the other from the book of Leviticus: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your soul, with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” In quoting this first commandment, Jesus emphasizes two aspects: that God is unique, the Lord. There are no other gods, cosmic forces, or powers to match. Consequently, the faith, devotion, love and trust of the believer must be directed and placed solely in that one God. And since there is no other with whom to share them, we must love the one God with all that we are and have. The second commandment, Jesus adds, is: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”.
“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your soul, with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”
Why does Jesus not answer with one commandment, but mentions two? Jesus does not explain it explicitly, but we can try to find an answer. I think Jesus responds in this way because God and neighbor belong to two different realms of human endeavor. God dwells beyond time and space, in heaven and eternity, and to him we have obligations; the neighbor, on the other hand, dwells next to us, in our time and space, and to him we also have obligations. If the principal commandment were only to love God, it would seem that the realities of this world are of secondary importance. But if love of neighbor were the principal commandment, it would seem that we could relegate God to second place or even dispense with Him, for only human relationships would be important.
It is also important to note that in both cases the same verb is used: to love. That verb is not reduced to sentiment, such as affection, affection or sympathy. The verb to love, in this context, could be better understood if its meaning were “fulfill your duties and obligations to God and to your neighbor.” Because it is a commandment, it should tell us what we are to do in relation to God and to our neighbor. These two commandments embrace and summarize, recapitulate and concentrate in themselves a whole series of other lesser commandments. That is why Jesus adds: “There is no commandment greater than these”.
“You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
I am surprised by the Pharisee’s response. First, he enthusiastically approves of the answer he has received from Jesus: “Very good, Master,” he says. “You are right.” But in repeating Jesus’ answer, he does two things. First, he no longer speaks of two commandments, but of only one, for he coordinates, articulates and assembles the two commandments that Jesus had quoted, and compares them with the commandments of a cultic or liturgical type. Perhaps this answer of the Pharisee responds to a controversy between priests and teachers of the law. Which is more pleasing to God: the performance of worship or the fulfillment of the moral law? Both are important, as long as they are not mutually exclusive. Worship must lead to obedience to the moral law, and the fulfillment of the moral law is the best worship we pay to God and is the support that legitimizes the liturgical action. The Pharisee’s response is brilliant: “You are right when you say that the Lord is unique and that there is no other besides him, and that to love him with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all the holocausts and sacrifices”. Finally, Jesus praises the teacher of the law. This is the only place where such a positive appraisal of Jesus’ esteem for a Pharisee teacher of the law is recorded: “You are not far from the kingdom of God”.
In the first reading, before Moses proclaims the commandment about the exclusive love of God, he exhorts the Israelites to keep the commandments and praises the law: “Keep them always, and so you will prolong your life. Then you will be happy, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has said, and you will multiply in a land flowing with milk and honey”. Why will keeping the commandments make us happy? Some think that at least some, if not all, of the moral commandments restrict and limit our freedom. In our culture, which has transformed the way we understand sexuality, the sixth and ninth commandments have become an oppressive yoke rather than a liberating guide.
Let us ask the Lord for His grace and favor so that our freedom may be docile in the fulfillment of the commandments He has given us.
Moral commandments draw their strength from the fact that they are rooted in nature, in who we are as individuals and as a society. God himself is subject to his creation. God commands certain actions because they are constructive of our human and social nature; and forbids others because they are destructive of our human and social nature. The actions that God commands or forbids are not good or bad because He commands or forbids them. The commandments that refer to God have the purpose of indicating which are the actions that favor our relationship with Him and by which we recognize His honor and glory. The commandments that refer to our neighbor prohibit those actions that destroy human dignity, that are contrary to personal growth and social coexistence, and command us to carry out actions that are constructive of our own dignity, of the dignity of our neighbor and of social coexistence. The ethical commandments are not divine whims, but guides for our freedom, so that we may make decisions that build and edify the person and society. Let us ask the Lord for His grace and favor so that our freedom may be docile in the fulfillment of the commandments He has given us.