Church of the
Annunciation

One of my favorite television programs is “Law and Order.” This title, I think, is rather appropriate for this Sunday’s readings. Without the law, there can be no order in our society. Our God is a God of order. Thus, our church is a church of order, meaning that there is a structure to every aspect of it.

In the book of Deuteronomy, we are told that we must love the Lord our God with our entire being. God gives us His unconditional love so that we have the means to love him in return. The first five books of the Old Testament are the books of the law. It is within these books that God issued the ten commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai.

Jesus makes reference to the ten commandments in today’s gospel as he summarizes them in his answer to the scholar’s question. The first five commandments pertain to our relationship with our God. Jesus quotes the passage from Deuteronomy in order to do this. But then, he takes it a step further by summarizing the last five commandments which pertain to our relationship with our neighbor. Therefore, we shall love the Lord our God with our entire being, and we shall love our neighbor as ourselves. The two great commandments go hand-in-hand. We cannot love our neighbor unless we love our God. What God gives to us, we must give to one another.

-Fr. Karl