In this section you can find a daily commentary on the Gospel of the Day.

Friday 17 March 2023

Third Week of Lent

Word for today
The Gospel of Mark 12:28b-34

The first procedure

What is the first of all the commandments? Literally: What is the procedure (in Greek entolè) first of all?
The procedure-entolè is not a precept imposed from the outside, but a requirement that comes from within, a kind of natural law no one can evade.
Entolè can be loosely translated as the requirement to function; entolè is the procedure, the knowledge of the mechanism that allows something to function.  It is not, therefore, in itself a commandment but the procedure, the method, the certain way that works and is effective. It is, at the same time, the user manual and the knowledge of the internal mechanism of how a reality works.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. Literally: You shall love the Lord God of you from your entire kardia-heart-mind, your entire psyche-way-of-thinking and your entire diànoia-intention-project (which is the product of the psyche, the effect of thinking) and from the entire force of your ischyos-force-power-solidity.
This is the first procedure in the user manual of the "life program." All living things refer to this dominant rule.  There is no atom, bear cub, waterfall, petal, bird’s song, flying eagle, sea wave, root, galactic change that does not follow moment by moment this procedure or this dominant law.
Following this procedure immediately frees us from attachments, gives psychic, physical and spiritual space, frees us from "holding badly" which is so poisonous and toxic to the individual's health; it places affections in their right order, makes dreams come true, enhances desire, opens our hearts to mercy and compassion, teaches us to ask God's forgiveness and to offer forgiveness to others, it immerses the spirit and heart, as well as the neuroendocrine immune system, in gratitude and in peace. Jesus insists: There is no other commandment greater than these. Literally: no other procedure is greater.