The scribe asked Jesus a simple yet profound question. “Which is the first of all the commandments?” With more than 600 commandments to choose from, you would think that there could be more than one right answer, but the one Jesus gave left a lasting impression on the scribe and Jesus’ followers ever since.
Jesus didn’t select any of the Commandments as we might expect. Instead he chose an ancient prayer. “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” God makes no greater demand of us than to love.
What Jesus said was the Shema, the same prayer we heard in the first reading from Deuteronomy. This prayer, recited twice daily by devout Jews, is the central tenet of their faith. Its name comes from the Hebrew for “listen.”
We can picture Jesus saying to us, “Listen! Open your ears!” Yes, listen. That one word says plenty. For when you stop to think about it’s meaning, listen means more than simply hearing what someone is saying. Listen means paying attention to what is being said. That one word, listen, sums up love for God, love for others, and love for self. One cannot love unless one listens.
If you never thought of listening as a synonym for love, then consider your everyday experiences. Isn’t the person who truly loves you the one who listens to you? Conversely, How do you feel when you go to someone you trust, someone you believe loves you to share a deep concern, only to be told, “I don’t have time to listen; I’m too busy.”
Even if they did listen, you sense that the person’s attention is elsewhere. Deep down, you feel shunned, unloved, and your views are rejected. Each of us reacts differently in moments like these. I admit that I do not always stay calm when I feel that I am being ignored. Now, imagine how God feels when we choose not to listen to him, for example, when we won’t listen to a scripture passage or a homily.
Listening takes much energy and few things in life can be more frustrating than when someone doesn’t listen. Listening is a gauge of how readily we love and are loved.
In response to the scribe’s question, Jesus essentially replied, “Listen to God. Listen to your neighbor. No commandment is greater than this: listen.
Jesus joins the Shema with an injunction from the book of Leviticus to love one’s neighbor. Why? To love God without loving others is a sham.
Too often we limit our perception of love to how we feel toward someone. But in his letter to the Corinthians, Paul expands the meaning of love. “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong but delights in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”
You don’t need much imagination to know and feel this is true. If we love God, then we will listen to God. If we listen to God, then we will value the wisdom of what is being asked of us. If we listen to God, we can see the wisdom to share what we have. Pope Francis pointed out in “Laudato Si’,” every “little gesture of love” becomes an antidote to acts of violence, abuse and indifference. Through such gestures the church is called to build a “civilization of love.”
Have you ever noticed that the letters that spell listen also spell silent? Be silent and listen; give God and your neighbor the chance to speak to you instead of reacting. That takes humility yet doing so is often a profound gesture of love. When both sides listen, differences can be resolved.
Listening to God is an act of love; that God is being loved with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Listening to God enables us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Loving both God and neighbor, as Jesus said, brings us closer to the Kingdom of God.