A mezuzah at the entrance of a Jewish home, Reform Judaism.

A scholar of the law tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”      Matthew 22:34.

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There are some things in life which are absolute. Death and taxes are two of them, unavoidable, inevitable and to be accepted whether we like them or not. And then there is today’s gospel. Jesus answered a basic question: “Which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Without any hesitation his answer was to quote from the Book of Deuteronomy 6:5, known as the Shema (meaning Hear… as in “Hear O Israel”): “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Simply the Jewish profession of faith, recited daily by the pious and every Sabbath day in the synagogue. It was and is the sine qua non of Jewish – and our – faith. If ever you see the right doorframe to a Jewish home you might see a small, long metal box. Inside this there will be a scroll on which that command will be written out and placed and the box attached to the doorpost. It is called the mezuza. It is a sign of that homeowner’s love of God and their dedication to God’s commands, the ultimate of which is contained within the mezuza. Often on the outside of this little sign of dedication to God is the letter Shin  as you can see in the illustration above. That is the first letter for Shaddai, the Hebrew word for “Almighty”  שַׁדַּי  a reference to God, whose most holy name may never be spoken aloud. In other words, it is the heart and soul of devotion to God, both inside, in the soul, and outside, signified in the mezuza. So Jesus in saying that, proclaims a total devotion to God answering that simple – yet profound – question. And it is the perfect answer.

However, there is another side to this question, which Jesus did not address. To be a good, observant Jewish man or woman at that time, scholars have calculated that, depending on your occupation, your gender, your position in society and other conditions, there were a total of six hundred and thirteen mitzvot (or “commandments”) to be followed, 248 being positive, what you had to do, and 365 negative commands, what you had to avoid doing. This accounts for St. Paul often talking about the countless rules and regulations Jewish folk had to obey to be deemed “good” by God. As you can see from today’s readings, none of that was even mentioned by Jesus. His teaching was quite simple: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” All else follows from that one command, including the clarifying “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Do that, and, as Paul says in today’s second reading, “…you became a model for all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.” The first reading, which is rather bellicose compared to the other readings, threatens terrible things if that golden rule is not followed: “You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry. My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword; then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans.” Pretty clear. We Christians, having been told that God is love (as 1 John 4:8 states: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”) might conclude that God will punish such people when they stand before the Judge of All, having been given time and opportunity to reform. And note the verb in Jesus’ response to that question: You shall love the Lord, your God…. And that is the message for this Sunday (and indeed every Sunday). What is – or should be – the focus of our lives?

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Deuteronomy 6:5 – Love the Lord Sticker, Sixty1Ten Designs.

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