shema

The answer of Jesus to the question what is the greatest commandment is a phrase every Jew is familiar with from the time he or she began to speak as a child.  It is memorized and repeated constantly throughout the day, in the synagogues, in coming in and out of the house, at the start of meetings and prayers, in the same way we do with the sign of the cross.  In fact it is the first words uttered on waking up from sleep and the last words uttered before sleeping.  It is called the shema - shema Israel the beginning of the phrase which says “Hear O Israel the Lord is God, the Lord alone, therefore you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

This is the answer of Jesus to the question which is the greatest of the commandment.  Jesus calls this greatest commandment because it hold everything together.  It is called is the divine keystone.  Like the keystone it holds the structure together for life and death can only make sense when love of God is at the center.  Take away the keystone, take away the command to love God; take away the command to make the love of God the reason and purpose for doing everything including and especially the love of neighbour - take this away and everything in our life cannot make sense.  Forgiving cannot make sense, sacrificing ourselves for the sake of others cannot make sense, martyrdom does not make sense, dying for others can never make sense. 

Shema Israel, “Hear O Israel the Lord is God, the Lord alone, therefore you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.”  These are the first words uttered upon waking and before sleeping because it is the keystone – it gives meaning and purpose to everything that we do during the day.  My desire for the priesthood, my perseverance in the priesthood cannot make sense when the shema is not central to my life, to my daily life even. In the priesthood, nothing makes sense when God is not loved above all things.

Sang seminarista ako kabudlay magsimba adlaw-adlaw kon bakasyon.  Kon ara ka sa seminaryo kada adlaw simba ka.  So kon ara ka sa balay tani bakasyon man kita sa simbahanay.  But my mother has a good way of making me remember the divine keystone that holds together my life.  Una kada adlaw sia nagasimba.  Ikaduha. every morning manuktok na sia sa kwarto.  Bal-an ko na ina kon ngaa.  Without saying anything it means bugtaw na kay masimba kita.  Tamad man ko tani magsimba pero kon indi ako magbangon sa gilayon ma-late sia sa misa ukon worst indi sia ka samba.  Kag amo ina ang indi ko mabatasan nga himuon, to deprive her of her daily mass.  I believe sa tanan nga gin-agyan sang amon Iloy amo ini ang nakahatag gid sa iya sang kusog, ang iya pagsimba kada adlaw sadtong tion nga makatakod pa sia.  Amo ini ang iya shema, ang nagapahanumdum sa iya nga kon ano man ang iya himuon sa sina nga adlaw, yara ang iya sini kamunu-an, yara ang iya sini rason kag tuyo, kag yara ang iya sini katapusan, sa paghigugma sa Dios sa bug-os niya nga tagipusuon, sa bug-os niya nga kalag, sa bug-os niya nga kusog.