Friday of the Third Week of Lent - March 16, 2012

Mark 12:28 - 31

So he asked him, "Which is the most important of all the commandments?"

Jesus answered, "Here is the most important one. Moses said, 'Israel, listen to me. The Lord is our God. The Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Love him with all your mind and with all your strength.'—(Deut. 6:4,5) And here is the second one. 'Love your neighbor as you love yourself.'—(Lev. 19:18) There is no commandment more important than these."


For all of our fractured ideas about God, about who God is and what God does, the Scriptures affirm the oneness and wholeness of God.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, Moses affirmed the oneness of God. The many deities of the other nations each had their niche, but this God permeated everything with a wholeness that brought everything together.

Jesus quoted Moses in this dialogue with a teacher of the Law, affirming the oneness of God.

Paul later said that in Christ, God holds all things together.

God is Beyond. And God is One.

This is part of the mystery in which we live with God. Do I understand it? Do you understand it? Of course not . . . and neither should we be expected to understand it. Any kind of religious reductionism that diminishes God to manageable size is far too small for this God in whom everything lives and moves and has its being.


For today . . . in the course of the day you may experience God manifested in many ways. There is a grand diversity in the way God is revealed in our world . . . yet there is also a grand oneness, a coherence in the revelation of God. As you notice God's self-revelation today, also remind yourself that God is One . . . and every revelation of God is a witness to God's Oneness.

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