Love God and your neighbor

Love God with your heart.
Once a man went to many priests and said, “ Please help me to understand your faith in five words and I’d join your church... many pastors refused saying, “ It is impossible to teach the whole catholic faith in five words... but at last a priest looked at him and said, “Love God, love your neighbor “-- the rest is all commentary.
Today if we ask hundred people about the most important element of Christianity, we would get at least ten different answers. Some would say it is faith, others would say prayer and still others would say the Church or service or love. When Christ our Lord the Only Son of God who teaches the secret of life and after life was asked this question namely the most important element in Christianity, He said it was “Our Love Directed towards God and God alone”Today we are talking about the relationship principles of Christ our Lord. Jesus doesn’t say, “Love God to the best of your ability,” nor does He say, “Love God with just your heart, or just your mind, or just your soul, or just your strength.” No, He says with all heart, all soul, all mind, and all strength! In other words, totally, completely, absolutely!!! And that is priority # 1 in the believer’s life!
The most important and core of all Jewish prayer is called “Shema, Israel..” namely hear O Israel. Every pious and devoted Jew would recite the Shema twice daily, morning and evening. It’s a center of all prayers. He would say, “Hear O Israel, the Lord is God. The Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength” It is the one cited by Christ our Lord as the greatest commandment in the Law.
A Scripture lawyer asks today a question saying, “Teacher, Which commandment is the greatest?”
And Jesus who knows all not only answers the question but also adds one more powerful answer like last weekend as people asked whether they should pay taxes to Caesar. Jesus said, “give it to Caesar what belongs to him and give it to God what belongs to God”. Jesus was making an emphasis not on Caesar's right but on God’s that people were ignoring for long time.
In the same way, the emphasis in today's question about the greatest commandment is not on the obvious love of God but on the love of neighbor which they were trampling upon.
There is a beautiful legend about John the beloved disciple. He lived many years even after all the apostles. He lived in Ephesus and went every day to preach the good news. Since he was very old and his body and mind were failing, his homily became five words homily. He repeated the five words every day namely “My Children, love one another”.
In the second century a non-Christian writer named Aristides wrote a letter to his emperor about Christians saying, “They love one another. They share with one another what they have and support the window and the orphans. They are preaching a new kind of religion. They say love God and love one another”. Yes, Dear friends in Christ, Christianity is a new kind of religion given by Christ our Lord. As we love and forgive one another, the world will become a better place to live and prosper. Where there is love, there is heaven and where there is heave, there is God. So let us love one another and make this earth a heavenly abode. Amen.