Is it really that simple?
The older I get, the more grateful I am for simple things and things that are simple, there is a difference between those two. When I was a younger person I liked the complex and convoluted. I don’t know if it made me feel superior to people to be able to keep straight a multi-point argument and then refute it. For that matter, I don’t really know how I was able to keep those sorts of things straight. I suspect one of the things that helps is that I think in paragraphs. I had no idea this was unusual in any way until I started seeing an excellent therapist. So, maybe that’s it. I don’t think in words or sequences of words or sentences but in paragraphs.
Be that as it may, I no longer value complexity for its own sake. I like things that are simple, not dumbed-down. If someone is trying to simplify a process and tries to accomplish it by leaving out steps . . . I’m not in favour of that sort of simplification. We see genuine simplification in our Gospel text today. When Jesus is asked by a teacher of the law:
“Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and 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.”
So there you have it. All the hundreds of commands and laws and regulations in the Old Testament follow and are subordinate to loving the Lord your God with all your heart, should, mind, and strength, and your neighbour as yourself. It’s that simple.
Blessings,
