In today’s Gospel, Jesus, when asked about which commandment should be first, says that we must love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. He is telling us here that what must be at the forefront of our minds constantly is love of God. When we truly love Him and commit to loving Him, everything else we do flows from that. When we adhere to His love, we adhere to the fact that we were made in His image and likeness. Therefore, we live according to what we were made for - communion with the Lord.
Following this, Christ says how we must love our neighbors as ourselves. When God reveals in Genesis 1:26 that man is made in His image and likeness, He is revealing the profound love He has for each of us; He is revealing the dignity we hold. When we truly digest that we are crafted by God in this way, our entire lives change. We suddenly realize that because of our value, we must treat ourselves with the love that God treats us with. And, when we truly digest this, we realize that every other human we see, every neighbor we ever come into contact with, is worthy of this same love and respect. No one is better than the other. We are all loved by the Lord. The first and second commandments emphasized by Christ in today’s Gospel are not separate from each other; rather, they are in communion with one another. Loving God above all else helps us love the people around us.
When the scribe agrees with Christ, and in turn Christ replies by saying, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God,” we can see how important adherence to the way of God is. God’s way leads us to eternal peace in Heaven. Christ came down as the Second Person of the Holy Trinity; He is therefore representing the community of God. Everything He does and says is meant to draw us into that community.