[35] And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, to test him.
[36] "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"
[37] And 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.
[38] This is the great and first commandment.
[39] And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
[40] On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."
[41] Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,
[42] saying, "What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David."
[43] He said to them, "How is it then that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,
[44] `The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I put thy enemies under thy feet'?
[45] If David thus calls him Lord, how is he his son?"
[46] And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did any one dare to ask him any more questions. 


The Great Commandment

This morning we heard that a certain lawyer tried to tempt Jesus. He wanted to know what was required to inherit eternal life.

Christ responds that "you must love the Lord your God, with all your heart, all your mind, and with all your soul."

The Great Commandment, as the church refers to this passage, is no doubt looked up as the impossible commandment as well. But as we heard last week, with God all things are possible."

The mind stands at the center of each person's faculty-centered existence. The brain is how we gather and process information, and as much it must not be suppressed.

The heart and soul meanwhile, stands at the center of each person's entire being. They are the primary center of our personhood in Christ. The heart is the seat of wisdom, and the seed of understanding. It is the place where all moral decisions are made. Trying to reconcile our minds and hearts has always stood as a great challenge for man.

Loving God with the totality of our human existence (mind, heart, soul) has always stood as a great challenge, yet because we are commanded by the Lord to do so, it requires the effort on our part.

In spite of its near impossibility, it is achievable.

The spiritual life we are all called to stands in direct opposition to that which our cultures advances. Orthodoxy, in many ways, is indeed a paradox to American culture.

Imagine having a conversation with Christ …

I say I want to be wise, Christ says be a fool.
I say I want to find myself, Christ says then lose yourself.
I say I want to be first, Christ says be the last.
I say I want to fulfill myself, Christ says empty yourself.
I say I want to be rich, Christ says be poor.
I say I want to be strong, Christ says be weak.
I say I want to rule the world, Christ says be a slave.
I say I want to live, and live life fully, Christ says, then die.

Dying to the world and the cross is the way to achieve spiritual perfection, and leads to freedom in Christ, the most desired place, and truly the only place where man can experience freedom.

To be poor, weak, a slave, the last, empty and a fool, means little in and of themselves. Being those will only lead us to madness and insanity. That much is certain.

We become those things for the sake of being united with Christ. It assists us in our effort to be filled with spiritual things.

If living the Great Commandment seems impossible, on a purely human level - it is.

But only with God are all things possible.

Fr Marc Vranes
Sept. 9, 2007

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