You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength … You must love your neighbour as yourself (Mark 12:29-30)
We often complain about laws and rules and their application. We know that there are those people who are very particular about the keeping of the letter of the law, sometimes even when it flies in the face of common sense.
Politicians often seem to be adding to the laws, rules and regulations which we must keep. When an issue troubles society people often call for new laws to deal with. Yet the same time, many complain about “red tape”, “regulations”, and “health and safety gone mad” which imposes burdens ion them.
There are those who accept the purpose of laws, yet believe they should be reduced to a bare minimum.
And there have been those who have idealistically rejected all laws.
But the fact of the matter is, whether it's a country or a community, a club or a school, we need rules, and we need laws.
Even in a family we need rules, and there are many examples of them. You see some on plaques and pictures which you can buy in the shops to put in your kitchens or hallways. They are meant to be humorous, but also contain a good deal of truth.
Here is one:
House Rules
If you open it, close it.
If you turn it on, turn it off.
If you break it, admit it.
If you borrow it, return it.
If you move it, put it back.
If you don't know how to work it, leave it alone.
But some are much more simple and try to cut away from unnecessary detail. Such as this …

RULES
1. Be kind
2. Always follow Rule 1.
But the problem with such charming statements are that they do not tell us what "kind" means. Is it kind, for example to put something back after we've borrowed it, or to stay cool calm and collected when we can't find something because someone forgot to put it back?
It's a similar issue which Jesus faces in today's Gospel. There were 613 laws in the Old Testament. Which is the most important? It's a trick question, perhaps - because if one is most important then perhaps others are not important at all.
Jesus gives the very familiar answer. There are two commandments. And all the Law, its 613 commands, and many more deriving from them, are all built on these two commands and their central theme: Love.
But “Love” is not the same as “Kind” - love of God is with all our heart. Love of neighbour is as ourself.
So Love is not just about being Nice - it is about being whole. It is about coming to Christ. It is about eternal happiness with him.
Pope Francis said:
God is the God of the law, but is also the God of surprises
God is always new; he never denies himself, he never says that what he had said is wrong, but he always surprises us
The law teaches the way to Christ, and if the law does not lead to Jesus Christ, and if it doesn’t get us closer to Jesus Christ, it is dead.
(13 October 2014)
The purpose of the Law, then, is to lead us to Christ. It to make us whole - it is the action of the whole heart - it about extending God’s love from ourselves to others.
Following God’s Law is not intended to make us anxious or unhappy, worried about offending him, cautious of mistakenly breaking some requirement or another. His Law encourages us in our lives and guides us in the decisions we must take. The Law challenges us to love one another so that not only is my life happy but the lives of our neighbours may be happy too.
He gives us comfort when we are sad. Hope when trouble confronts us. He gives us joy and blessings in our lives. He makes sense out of confusion and hope out of despair. Serving him leads us to this deep and true happiness, the happiness of living in the Truth, the happiness of doing what we know to be right.
So God’s Law is not a collection of petty or arbitrary rules, keeping his law is neither like the nit picking of the jobsworth, nor the fear of the oppressed servant. This is the path of righteousness, of justice, of love. When it is not - it has lost its power to command.
And when it is what is intended to be, it is about sharing with others the joy we know from his presence. His Law is Love, because God is Love.
