"Friends, our Gospel features what the ancient Israelites referred to as the shema:
"Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is Lord alone." Could I invite
everyone to make an examination of conscience on the basis of the shema?
Is God the one Lord of your life? Who or what are his rivals for your
attention, for your ultimate concern? Or, to turn the question around:
Does absolutely everything in your life belong to God?
But
people might ask: How do we give ourselves to a reality that we cannot
see? This is where the second command of Jesus comes into play. When
asked which is the first of all the Commandments, Jesus responded with
the shema, but then he added something to the tradition: a second command, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
There
is a strict logic at work here. When you really love
someone, you tend to love, as well, what they love. Well, what does God
love? He loves everything and everyone that he has made. So, if you want
to love God, and you find this move difficult because God seems so
distant, love everyone you come across for the sake of God."
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