31 Sunday in ordinary time ‘b’
I remember back in school when every so often my task was to read a particular book and then summarize it. Summarize it, meaning, making a brief statement about the book and its key ideas. In other words, grasp from that book the main message, and leave behind the less important descriptions. Perhaps when you attended a funeral of someone, at the end of the service, a person gave a eulogy, which is also a kind of a summary of the life of the deceased -- the most important elements of his or her life. Today in the Gospel reading, Jesus is asked to give a summary of all the commandments. There are so many of them and many rules and regulations, so what could summarize all of them? It is simple, Jesus says: “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." And this is not only a summary of all the commandments, but the summary of all Christianity!
