DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
First of
All Commandments: St. Mark 12:28-37, especially vss.
29, 30: “...Hear, O
The Rabbis
point out that the six words of the “Shema”
are “the best-known words in Judaism’s liturgy, the
‘watchword’ of
Seeing
that this “first of all the commandments” enjoins upon us the task
“to go forward to the perfection of love and to learn to know Him Who is
truly beloved,” St. Basil the Great warns, “it is not the privilege
of any chance person” to attain this goal, but belongs only to “him
who has already ‘put off the old man, which is being corrupted through
its deceptive lusts, and has put on the new man’ (Eph. 4:22,24), which is
being renewed that it may be recognized as an image of the Creator.” The “Shema”
is not theory, but a way to live.
Let us
understand that we committed ourselves to this work of “learning to know
Him Who is truly beloved” when we chose to be “buried with [the
Lord Jesus] through Baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the
dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of
life” (Rom. 6:4). God is very
frank with us: He is ready to transform all who are Baptized
into the Mystery of Christ and offers to each the opportunity to “be a
partaker of [His] Resurrection” so long as each one preserves
“the gift of Thy Holy Spirit,” and increases “the measure of
grace committed unto him.”
Such is not the privilege of any chance person, but of those who take
the Lord’s yoke upon themselves to labor (Mt. 11:29).
St.
Basil emphasizes this very truth but with a caution: “as much love as you
shall have squandered on lower objects, that much will necessarily be lacking
to you from the whole.” In
other words, “he who loves money and is aroused by the corruptible beauty
of the body and esteems exceedingly this little glory here, since he has
expended the power of loving on what is not proper, he is quite blind in regard
to the contemplation of Him Who is truly beloved.” The Lord insists that we “shall
love [Him] with all [our] heart, with all [our] soul, with all [our] mind, and
with all [our] strength” (Mk. 12:30; Deut. 6:5).
Fickle
as we are, how can we possibly do this? We cannot love when ordered to do
so. Understanding this, St. Basil
encourages us: “we did not learn to love God as a result of outside
instruction. In the very nature of
every human being has been sown the seed of the ability to love. Welcome this seed, cultivate it
carefully, nourish it attentively, and foster its growth by going to the
May my
prayer draw near to Thee, O Lord. Grant me Thy holy seed, that I might
bring Thee a harvest of sheaves abundant in good fruits and say, “Glory
to Thee Who givest me
life.”
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