Mingled with the sounds of fireworks being set off to celebrate this country’s 246 years of freedom were the sounds of rifles. Mass murderers were killing children, the elderly and adults. They brought sadness and grief to the victims’ friends and familie, and shock to our country. And as with each mass shooting, we ask why, what can be done to prevent more of these horrible events? Jesus has an answer.
Jesus was asked “Which is the great commandment in the Law?” The question was asked to test Jesus, because it was forbidden to place any commandment more important than another. Jesus’s answer was “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:36-40)
A very big word isn’t necessarily one with the most letters. Consider the word “if.” What would happen to our world “if” we obeyed that great commandment and the second commandment? “If” we truly loved God we would not be so focused on physical wants and pleasures. And ‘if’ we loved our neighbor as ourselves we would support the disenfranchised, we would favor mental and spiritual counseling for the troubled, and we would do what was necessary to keep firearms out of the hands of the wrong people, even ‘if’ it meant giving up some of our own pleasures. “If” is a big word, but if we truly loved God and our neighbor we would all be working for everyone’s good, and our world would be a better place. The shooting would stop. It is unlikely that this will happen, but ‘if’ each of us would make these two commandments our guide, the part of the world we occupy would be more peaceful.
