"The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!"

As I was reading these readings I first thought, how great it would be if all truly loved their neighbor as they loved themselves.  What a wonderful world!  Then the devil caught my attention -- What about those who do not love themselves, those who have never been loved or taught to love, and those who are narcissistic and love themselves for all the wrong reasons? There have been many times when I have been frustrated, pressured with a deadline and my love of self is pretty tarnished. If I treated others the way I treated myself at those times the world could be a pretty miserable place and my beautiful world view started to crack.  

As I prayed the psalm refrain over and over again I heard our God calling to the Israelites, to me, to hear Him.  As I re-read the verses I heard the call of a merciful God pleading with us to hear Him, reminding us of His mercy, begging us to turn back to Him.  It was then that I re-read the gospel and read "The FIRST is this . . ."  Ahaa!  a light went on.  When we "love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength" we are filled with a gentle mercy, power and forgiveness of ourself and others. This allows us to (again) see ourselves in the image and likeness of the God who so lovingly created us.  It is then that we are told the SECOND is this: "Love your neighbor as yourself." In context, we are being called into relationship with a God who loves us unconditionally and asks us in turn to extend that same gift of unconditional love to our neighbor.

BTW, Love your neighbor AS yourself -- AS God loves you -- without condition, without qualification, no strings attached -- as we taught our children -- "no ifs, ands, or buts, just do it!" What a wonderful world it could be.  On the Weekend we teach couples the sign of their Sacrament is their unconditional love for each other -- the rest is frosting -- it always amazes me that our command, our role in life as husband and wife could be boiled down that simple and at sometimes times be so challenging! MOM