God has very few commandments for us, but we often add to them and avoid the one that should be our guiding star. The Israelites repeated it constantly – it guided them and gave them strength. They were to love God with all their heart, mind, and soul, and to have no other gods. They often failed in that commitment, just as we often fail in ours. But when they observed this fervently, all was well; when they forgot, disaster often followed.

When a scribe asked Jesus to name the greatest of the commandments, Jesus did not give him something new. He merely repeated the guiding command from Deuteronomy, but with a twist. He added something from Leviticus – ‘and your neighbor as yourself.' Loving God and others go hand in hand – you cannot have one without the other. We are connected to God through the love that we show others.

In loving, we see our faith is never a solitary one but a union of the mind and heart with all creation. This is a simple (but not easy!) command – humans are the ones who mess it up and distort it. If we do nothing more than observe this commandment in our words, thoughts, and deeds, then we are in union with God. Let this be our guiding light each day in all our dealings with others and with the challenges that we meet.