By Fr. Rich, O.P.
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.
(Deuteronomy 6:4-9)
These verses are known collectively as The Shema. They express the essence of Judaism: that God must be loved and obeyed at all times. The verses are inscribed on small scrolls contained in a box called a mezuzah, fastened to the doorpost of Jewish homes. The wearing of a small mezuzah (usually a cylinder) around the neck on a chain is a modern adaptation of the ancient custom.
I would offer that when we hear in the Gospel Jesus telling his Disciples that He has not come to “abolish but to fulfill” the Law, He could well be referring to this passage. Jesus insists that simple compliance is not enough. Our passage ends with a clear command: “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes’, and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.'” These verses were clearly not meant to be forgotten. As the center of the law, there was no room for complacency about how they were to be engaged.
A “Yes!” looked like impressing them on Jewish children and talking about them at home or when traveling. These verses should be in the forefront of the hearts and minds of the Jewish people as they sit at home or travel. When they were at rest, or throughout the course of their day, our Jewish brothers and sisters were enjoined to be focused on these words.
Does our “Yes!” look that different? Are not we too enjoined to commit to these verses that are so clear? Our holy Father Dominic said that, “We should either be talking to God or about God.” Isn’t that what these verses challenge us to engage: the total, unreserved willingness to hear, obey, and thereby love God?
The reality is that the form is less relevant than the content, what rather than how. The reality is that over the centuries how our love of God is expressed has changed in our rituals and prayers, but not in how we are called to live it out.
In our Gospel today, Jesus is challenging His listeners to truly hear the language of the Law and acknowledge its intent — the love of God and respect for all his creatures and creation. More than that, He is calling them to change their behavior in order that all might know who they are — the Chosen People.
All that has gone before in this little essay applies to us as well.
The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
In our Gospel today, Jesus calls us to truly hear the language of the Law and acknowledge its intent — the love of God and respect for all his creatures and creation. More than that, He is calling us to change our behavior in order that all might know who we are — the Chosen People.