WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - Jesus had just been through a time of testing with the various parties in Jerusalem. The Pharisees and Herodians were both challenging him about paying taxes, while on opposite sides of the argument. Then the Sadduccees (who didn't believe in the resurrection) confronted him about the resurrection.

Now, in our Gospel passage for today (Mark 12:28-34) a solitary scribe approaches him. Probably out of his amazement in Jesus' answers, he asks him a reasonable albeit important question.  "Which commandment," he inquires, "is first of all?"

This was a question widely debated among the teachers of the law. As such, he was looking beyond the Decalogue - the Ten Commandments - to the addition rigor place on the Jews through the Talmud. There were 613 complementary laws, or more accurately fence laws" that must be followed. These laws were designed to assure a Jew that he would not transgress one of the "big Ten."

Scribes had always thought that among them all, there must be one that is first and foremost. This was the source of constant debate and the teacher was looking for another answer.

So, Jesus, who was put on the spot, responding immediately saying, 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.

"Well said, teacher," was the Scribe's reply.

While the Scribe was looking for one commandment among many that would stick out, Jesus stepped back from the minutia and used a sweeping statement from Deuteronomy 6, part of the Hebrew "Shema," and Leviticus 16.

As frail humanity, it is easy for us to get so caught up in separate small matters that we miss the big picture. Unfortunately, when we keep trying to put things in a priority, we can construct a false reality since we really don't understand how various components actually relate.

When we moved to Northern Virginia fifteen years ago, the area didn't make a lot of sense to me and was hard to figure out. We had rolling hills and a lot of trees, a very different terrain that Kansas, where we had lived for the 14 years before that.

Then I started traveling a lot out of Dulles Airport. From several thousand feet everything began to make sense. I noticed how close - or far - things were to each other. How the different towns and residential communities fit together.

This was Jesus plan. While the Scribes were down on the ground, looking at the overabundance of laws from which to choose, our Lord was soaring high above, emphasizing the vertical and horizontal relationships that superseded them all.

The love relationships we express with God and each other are both the measure of our faith as well as the means. During Lent, we should take time to examine both.


Loving God

The first part of the "greatest commandment" was taken from the Hebrew "shema" which was the beginning word of a quote from Deuteronomy 6:4-9.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Our Lord, in responding to the Scribe, particularly underscored the fact that our relationship with God is based firstly on love not legalism. For all intents and purposes, he was saying, that if you truly love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind (this phrase was added by Jesus in his quote), and all your strength, you then could do what you want.

How am I with regard to loving God? In the typical examination of conscience, this would focus especially on the first three commandments.

Since we would normally be using this for confession, we would frame our questions in the negative; where I have failed to love Him. We could look at such things as denying him before others, taking his name in vain, failing to pray, missing Mass, etc.

While the Sacrament of Reconciliation offers us absolution, we can't stop there. Our heart's cry must be to proactively seek for the grace of the Holy Spirit, working in us, to bring us to the place where we truly love Him more.

St. Paul, in describing certain actions he was taking with regard to the Church in Corinth, said, "the love of Christ compels us." The love relationship that we ...