Homily for Thursday of the 9th Week in Ordinary Time

The Scribes and Pharisees of Jesus' time were obsessed with many rules and were real sticklers on all the details. From their perspective, knowing all the rules and nuances and keeping them was seen as a guarantee that you were living according to the will of God. It was easy and comforting, albeit requiring due diligence.

In our Gospel passage, a particular Scribe approached Jesus, wanting to know which commandment He believed was the greatest.

Jesus didn't answer with any of the human-made commandments or the Ten Commandments. Instead, He indicated that love of God and love of neighbor were the two most important commandments. The Scribe understood and responded accordingly.

May we, too, understand that our love of God and our love of one another (all made in God's image) must be paramount in our hearts and minds as we seek to do God's will and trust that, in so doing, we will be moving closer to our promised redemption.