As we read the gospel for this week I wonder if people read the Bible anymore or think about The Love that Jesus had for the world. He said these words to the Pharisees as they were trying to trick Him into saying something that would violate the Church laws. Jesus’ answer took them by surprise. When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
How many still truly believe and practice these words. Every day, we hear of our politicians fighting among themselves and not supporting their constituents. So obviously they haven’t reread this lately and understand Jesus words. We hear of mass shootings, wars, killings and all the other violence that violates the teachings Of our Lord. I started looking at why. I have somewhat realized that as we look at people and their commitments, we see that there was created a hole. A hole that started in 2000 with Covid. People got used to staying home and not coming to church. The environment during that time was divisive and divided. People really took sides and animosity built up. A lot was caused by confusion from our leaders and misinformation. And now that we have managed through Covid people are still staying home and watching on- line or not at all. The personnel message from being in church and the social interactions have decreased. People have become more self-centered and the love that Jesus showed us has started to erode. I don’t have any answers but somehow, we need to really take seriously those words of Jesus and we can never hear them to much, When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Reflections by Bob 