Friday, Third Week of Lent

Very often in the gospels, Jesus and the scribes, the experts in the Jewish Law, are at odds with one another. In today’s gospel reading, however, Jesus and one particular scribe are of one mind on what is at the heart of the Jewish faith. They agree that what matters most in the Jewish faith is the love commandment, the commandment to love God with all one’s being and to love our neighbour as we would ourselves. It is possible that the scribe would have understood ‘neighbour’ as his Jewish neighbour, but it is clear from the gospels that Jesus understood neighbour in the broadest possible sense, as our fellow human being, even our enemy. These two love commandments have a status far above all the other commandments and regulations in the Jewish Law. Yet, within these two commandments, Jesus gives priority to the commandment to love God with all our being, and the scribe agrees with him. Only God is to be loved with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and all our strength. Only God is worthy of our total love. It is in loving God in this complete way that we can love others with the love of God, in the way God loves them. There is, however, something that comes before even these two commandments, and that is God’s love for us. In today’s first reading from the prophet Hosea, God says, ‘I will love them with all my heart’. Our love of God with all our heart is always in response to God’s love of us with all God’s heart. As Saint John says in his first letter, ‘We love because God first loved us’. This is the good news that comes before any commandment. It is in hearing this good news and allowing ourselves to be touched by God’s love that we will be empowered to love God in return with all our being and to love our neighbour with the love of God.