“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)

The major theme for this 15^th Sunday in Ordinary Time focuses on the first of the two greatest commandments of Jesus Christ that summarize the “613 Mitzvot = commandments” of the Law of Moses, which is known as the “Shema Yisrael” = “Hear, Oh Israel" in our Christian life. Christ wants us first to love God with all our heart, with all our being, with all our strength and with all our mind, and second to love our neighbor as ourselves. If we do this, we will not perish but live.

“Shema Yisrael” are the first two words of a section of the Torah (the teaching, direction, guidance and law of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible also known as the Pentateuch) and are the title of a prayer that serves as a centerpiece of the Jewish morning and evening prayer services. The very first verse encapsulates the monotheistic essence of Judaism: "Hear, O Israel: the LORD is our God, the LORD is one." (Deuteronomy 6:4). Because “Shema” is the essence, the nucleus of Jewish faith, it is taught to all Jewish children and recited at least twice daily by all observant Jews.

We know that Jesus was a Jew ethnically, culturally and religiously, and that Christianity and true salvation comes from the Jews (John 4:22), thus, “Shema” is also a dogma of Christian faith.

Our profession of faith begins with God, for God is the first and the last, the beginning and the end of everything (CCC #198). The affirmation of “God is one” or “I believe in One God” begins the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. The confession of God’s oneness, which has its roots in the divine revelation of the Old Covenant, is inseparable from the profession of God’s existence and is equally fundamental.

God is unique; there is only one God: “The Christian faith confesses that God is one in nature, substance, and essence” (CCC #200). To God we owe everything. Therefore, “Shema” reminds us that we need to love God with all our being.  

God does not want us holding a relationship of Transaction but Transformation. Therefore, Dynamic Christian disciples are those who (1) BELIEVE, (2) GROW, (3) SERVE, (4) LOVE and (5) LEAD others to Jesus. Today’s topic invites us to concretize “Shema” to love God above all and to love our neighbors as ourselves to accomplish God’s will in our lives to glorify God.  

How can we love our God by helping people around us? 

Wishing everyone a blessed week in the Lord.