“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
In today’s Gospel reading, the Pharisees question Jesus about which commandment in the law is the greatest. A key word here is law, an area in which the Pharisees and Sadducees often challenged Jesus. Following the law as it had been passed down through tradition, the Pharisees sought to trip up Jesus by questioning him about the greatest law. His response? The whole law and the prophets depend on love of God and love of neighbor.
God, help me understand the greatest commandment, which is nothing but dry bones without spirit if limited only to human endeavor. It takes a relationship with God to bring them to life. In the first reading from Ezekiel, the Lord takes Ezekiel out to walk among a vast plain covered by human bones. Through cooperation with the commands of the Lord, Ezekiel puts sinews, flesh, and skin over the bones. But, although they were covered in skin, there was no spirit in them. And then the Lord says to Ezekiel, “Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus says the Lord GOD From the four winds come, O spirit, and breathe into these slain that they may come to life.” Ezekiel then says, “I prophesied as he told me, and the spirit came into them; they came alive and stood upright, a vast army.” Here, every step of the way on the plain of dry bones, the Lord instructs Ezekiel to prophesy to bring his commandment to life. Alone, Ezekiel could do nothing to bring the bones to life. In the same way, without God’s love, there is little I can do to carry out his greatest commandment with genuine love.
Lord, you led Ezekiel to the plain to hear your word and see in every direction dry bones, beings dead in spirit that he would bring to life through your saving power. Today, when my spirit starts to fade and wither, feeling the sting of little deaths and disappointment, let me remember Ezekiel’s reply when you asked him if these bones can come to life. He said in reply to you, “I answered, ‘Lord GOD, you alone know that.’ ” Let me have the faith to love and trust you as Ezekiel did.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.