Friar’s Corner: God’s greatest commandment

Fr. Bob Hilz, TOR

Deuteronomy 6:2-6; Psalms 18:2-4, 47, 51; Hebrews 7:23-28; Mark 12:28b-34

This week’s gospel is perhaps the best Q and A Jesus event. Our Jewish brethren were raised to say a few times a day the “great Shema,” which means “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is God alone!”

This is an expression of the first of Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai. They were not to give reverence or worship any other pagan gods. God’s name was holy and they were to keep holy one day of a weekend, the Lord’s Day. The other commandments were human relationship commands. Those commands regarded how they were to relate with other human beings.

In Mark’s gospel passage today, Jesus is asked by a Jewish scribe, “What was the first of all the commandments?” Jesus answered,

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.

The scribe accepted this answer. Jesus commended him for his understanding and told him that he was not far from the kingdom of God. St. Mark’s setting of this story was friendly and not one asked Jesus any more questions. The first three commandments are God-centered. The last seven are other person-centered. We are told to care for and support others. If all humans were raised by their parents to understand and live by these two sentences, we would have a very different world.

Our right to life

When our parents created us at that first cell, we were human. We could not develop into anything else. Our brains were wired to perform certain tasks as male or female. The difference in bodies was to help God continue to create the human race. Much of our human characteristics were set at that first cell. Biologically and scientifically we are human from that first cell.

Our Bill of Rights as US citizens states that we have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness given to us by our creator. It is logical that to destroy that developing human being is murder. To do that is to side with the dark forces that are trying to destroy the human race. One of the Ten Commandments is “Thou shalt not kill.” What should the punishment be?

What I have been saying for the last three weeks is that protecting life is essential for this mid-term election. Being disobedient to God and turning away from him has consequences. Could the devastating weather be a chastisement of God for this issue?

If I grow up in a family or have a family with only one parent, without learning to be loved and love myself and my gifted characteristics, then I am not able to love, care for and cooperate with other human beings. Pray and look for the Pro-Life candidates on your ballot Tuesday 11/6.

Planned Parenthood statistics

Here are a few facts of national Planned Parenthood. Their annual national budget is about 1 billion 300 million dollars. Of that budget, 500 million comes from your federal taxes. A number of congresspersons have tried to take Planned Parenthood out of the budget. But with last minute deals and such a large budget, the abortion part is overlooked and left in the budget.

The number of abortions has been coming down in recent years due to a greater awareness of this issue and how quickly new life developed in a mother. The number of “surgical abortions” done by Planned Parenthood is more than 300 thousand annually. This does not include the chemical abortions. Will God continue to tolerate this?

Vote with Jesus

As we vote, do you want to vote with Jesus and be on his side or not? Part of our judgment, after our death, will be on this issue.

Jesus Christ is our high priest who came to earth to heal us, teach us how to live in his kingdom with his values and die to free us from our sins. He did that once for all humans who had and will live on earth. He rose from the dead to show us his sacrifice was accepted by his and our Father. Let us accept the graces that come from Jesus’ pierced heart and stand with him and his guidelines.

Please vote with Jesus and have a good conscience free week. God bless you, yours and our country and world.

+  Fr. Bob Hilz
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(© 2018 Fr. Bob Hilz, TOR)