6th June 2013
The Oriental mind is synthetic, while the Western mind is analytic. That is why the Oriental Scriptures have their condensed forms called the 'Sutras'. No doubt Jesus of Nazereth was an Oriental. He looks to synthesize every thing that he wants his listeners to understand. Today he synthesizes the whole of the Hebrews' Scripture to just two admonitions - Love God; Love your Neighbour! In the Mathean parallel of today's Gospel, Jesus would clearly conclude saying, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Mt 22:40) (law refering to the Torah and prophets refering the rest of the books, Neviim and Ketuvim - in short the entire Scripture as believed by the Jews). And a while later, Paul would understand Christ's mind so well to go further to declare, "for the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, 'you shall love your neighbour as yourself'."(Gal 5:14). Our entire Christian life is summed up in one word - LOVE. If I live a life of love, love in its truest sense, love in its divine nature, love in its Christ-ian essence, everything else falls in line. What a beautiful exemplification of this 'love' in Tobias and Sara! Again today, I am inspired to quote Augustine who said, "Love, and do what you will!" Such is the surety we have in Christ-ian Love.
