DAILY MEDITATION: “There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Liturgical day: Friday of the Third Week of Lent

Gospel text (Mk 12,28-34): 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.

“There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Fr. Pere MONTAGUT i Piquet
(Barcelona, Spain)

Today, Lenten liturgy presents us Love as the deepest root of our self- communication with God: “The soul cannot live without love, but always wants to love something, because she is made of love, and, by love, I created her” (Saint Catherine of Siena). God is almighty love, extreme love, crucified love: “It is there [on the Cross] that this truth can be contemplated” (Benedict XVI). This Gospel is not only a confirmation of the prayer the pious Jew used to say every morning, but it is also a self-revelation as to how God —through his Son— wants to be loved. With a Commandment from Deuteronomy: “you shall love the LORD, your God” (Deut 6, 5) and another one from Leviticus: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Lv 19, 18), Jesus enforces the plenitude of the Law. He loves the Father, as a true God born out of a real God and, as the Word made Flesh, He creates the new Mankind of the sons of God, brothers loving each other with the love of the Son.

Jesus' call to communion and to the mission requires our participation in its very same nature; it is closeness where to get ourselves in. Jesus does not vindicate him as the milestone of our prayer and of our love. He thanks the Father and constantly lives in his presence. The mystery of Christ attracts us towards the love for God, invisible and inaccessible, while —at the same time— it shows us the way to identify our sincerity in our love and life for our visible and present brother. The burnt offerings in the altar are not the most valued ones, but Christ burning as the unique sacrifice and offering, so that we may become in Him a single altar, a single love.

This unity of knowledge and love woven by the Saint Spirit allows God to love through us and to use all our capacities, while allowing us to be able to love as Christ does, with the same filial and fraternal love. What God united in love, man cannot sever. This is the greatness of he who submits to the Kingdom of God: self-love is no longer an obstacle but rapture to love the one and only God and a crowd of brothers.

Source: evangeli.net