The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments

26 OCTOBER (Mt 22,34-40)

To acquire joy and happiness the man is willing to make any sacrifice, any job, even messy, dirty and immoral. He is ready to kill, steal and give false witness. For a better life he aborts, divorces and abandons his family. All life is a quest for happiness. Today then he comes to the point of carrying out works of genuine stupidity and foolishness. He drowns himself in alcohol, in drugs, in physical dizziness, in the obscuration of his conscience, in the death of the spirit and even of the body. Yet the Lord says it with infinite clarity: happiness, joy, abundance, blessings, peace and possession of the self and of life is from the observance of his law. It is the only necessary and absolute work. All others are accessory, secondary and added.

“These then are the commandments, the statutes and decrees which the Lord, your God, has ordered that you be taught to observe in the land into which you are crossing for conquest, so that you and your son and your grandson may fear the Lord, your God, and keep, throughout the days of your lives, all his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you, and thus have long life. Hear then, Israel, and be careful to observe them, that you may grow and prosper the more, in keeping with the promise of the Lord, the God of your fathers, to give you a land flowing with milk and honey. “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest. Bind them at your wrist as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates. “When the Lord, your God, brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that he would give you, a land with fine, large cities that you did not build, with houses full of goods of all sorts that you did not garner, with cisterns that you did not dig, with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant; and when, therefore, you eat your fill, take care not to forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. The Lord, your God, shall you fear; him shall you serve, and by his name shall you swear. You shall not follow other gods, such as those of the surrounding nations, lest the wrath of the Lord, your God, flare up against you and he destroy you from the face of the land; for the Lord, your God, who is in your midst, is a jealous God. “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test, as you did at Massah. But keep the commandments of the Lord, your God, and the ordinances and statutes he has enjoined on you. Do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that you may, according to his word, prosper, and may enter in and possess the good land which the Lord promised on oath to your fathers, thrusting all your enemies out of your way. Our justice before the Lord, our God, is to consist in carefully observing all these commandments he has enjoined on us’” (Cf. Dt 6,1-25).

The commandments of the Lord find their perfection in the full love toward men. Not this or that man, but the man, whoever he is. Nobody excluded.

The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them: Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. “You shall not defraud or rob your neighbour. You shall not withhold overnight the wages of your day labourer. “You shall not act dishonestly in rendering judgment. Show neither partiality to the weak nor deference to the mighty, but judge your fellow men justly. “When an alien resides with you in your land, do not molest him. You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; have the same love for him as for yourself; for you too were once aliens in the land of Egypt. I, the Lord, am your God (Cf. Lev 19,1-37).

Loving God and loving the neighbour are two distinct commandments. God must be loved as the Lord, the Creator and the Redeemer. The man must be loved as a brother, as the self.

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them [a scholar of the law] tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints teach us true love.