To the doctor of the law’s question about the great commandment, Jesus replies by quoting a text from Deuteronomy with which he associates a verse from Leviticus. However, Matthew drops an important verb, which opens the passage from Deuteronomy: Listen! (cf. Dt 6,4). And in Deuteronomy “to listen” is associated with another fundamental verb: “to remember”. We listen to be able to remember, and remember not simply a story, but all that God has done for his people. What we must listen to is not above all a commandment – “you must love” – but that God loved us first and that this love of his founds and demands the possibility of loving the other as oneself, recognizing that he / she is also loved from God as I am. At the heart of every commandment there is love, just as at the heart of love there is a commandment. There is the word of God. Love is not a spontaneous movement of the heart; it is based on a Word, it comes from listening. St. Paul reminds the Christians of Thessalonica that at the origin of their community there is a word of God preached with the example of life and accepted, albeit in the midst of so many trials and tribulations, in the joy of the Holy Spirit. Listening means recognizing that the Word of God works in our midst and slowly fulfills its promises. Before being a commandment, the Word is a promise: a promise of life, a promise of fruitfulness that overcomes our impossibilities.

Commentary by Comunità di Dumenza

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey