Searching for a unifying principle
Two commandments together serve as tools for interpreting the others
November 5, 2006 -- 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. Michael Stubbs
The internet can easily overwhelm us with its access to many of the world's largest libraries. Without some guidance, a person can become hopelessly lost. For example, when I googled "Ponce de Leon," I came up with 5,050,000 results for my search.
Similarly, the Torah provided 613 commandments, designed to regulate every facet of Jewish
life. It was difficult to maneuver among such a large number of rules. That explains why, at the time of Jesus, there was an effort to find a unifying principle for all the commandments. That is the issue which lies behind the question that the scribe addresses to Jesus in Sunday's gospel reading, "Which is the first of all the commandments?"
The scribe's question does not imply that the remaining commandments can be ignored. Neither does it suggest that one commandment is first in a chronological sense. Rather, it assumes that all the remaining commandments can be deduced from the first commandment. That first commandment then would also serve as a tool for interpreting all the others.
The scribe's search for a first commandment resembles Pope John Paul II's emphasis upon respect for human life. He saw respect for human life as a unifying principle for our moral decisions. Respect for human life would not eliminate our other responsibilities, but it would help in clarifying and interpreting them.
It is significant that in his answer to the scribe, Jesus does not offer just one commandment as a unifying principle. One single commandment would not be sufficient. Jesus includes a corollary. The second commandment, to love our neighbor as our self, then serves as a tool for interpreting the first commandment.
In light of Jesus' other teachings, it becomes obvious why Jesus links the two commandments together. Jesus often criticized people for using religious observances as an excuse for not loving their neighbors. He objected to people who claimed to love God, while at the same time they ignored the needs of their fellow human beings. That is why he was willing to heal a man with a withered hand on the sabbath day, even though that violated the religious rule which forbade work on the sabbath. (Mark 3:1-6) Similarly, Jesus opposed placing such importance upon religious tradition that our other responsibilities end up being neglected. That is why he challenged the ritual of washing the hands before meals. He was concerned that people were focusing upon that religious practice, while at the same time they were overlooking their own spiritual impurities. "You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition." (Mark 7:8)
The first commandment, to love God totally and completely, serves as a unifying principle for all of our moral responsibilities. It helps to clarify and interpret them. Similarly, the second commandment, to love our neighbor as ourselves, serves as a tool to clarify and interpret the first commandment. That is why Jesus gives both commandments in answer to the scribe's question. Both are necessary.
(Fr. Stubbs, a priest of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas, has a master's degree in theology from Harvard.)
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