Loving God, Self, and Others
Sunday, October 25, 2026
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus replied, “The first is this: … ‘You shall love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
—Mark 12:28–31
In this homily, Father Richard Rohr considers Jesus’s response to the question, “Which is the first of all the commandments?”:
I don’t think any of us really know how to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We might want to love like that, but how do we put all the parts of ourselves together and actually do it? It takes our whole lives to figure out what Jesus’s words might even mean. Then Jesus says, “You must love your neighbor as you love yourself” (Mark 12:31). Do any of us do that? Do we really love other people? Do we really give them as much attention as we give to ourselves? I don’t think so.
Imagine how different the world would be if we just obeyed that one commandment to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. It would be the most mighty political and social upheaval imaginable. The world would be radically different if human beings really treated other people as they would like to be treated. We can take this as a simple rule of thumb: What would I want from that person right now? What would be helpful for me to receive?Well, there’s the commandment—our obligation to do for others!
It’s so simple that we can see why we put all our attention on the Ten Commandments, or the hundreds of other regulations culture and religion place on us. It’s much easier to worry about things that keep us “pure,” so to speak, but are of little consequence.
I think the scribe is asking a very good question. After all is said and done, it comes down to loving God and loving our neighbor—and that implies loving ourselves. If I said this without quoting Jesus, I could be accused of oversimplifying or ignoring some of the important commandments. Thank God, Jesus said it first. He taught that it’s all about love. In the end, that’s all we’re all going to be judged for. Did we love? Did we love life? Did we love ourselves? Did we love God? Did we love our neighbor? Concentrating on love takes just about our whole lifetime, so we won’t have much time left over to worry about what other people are doing or not doing. Our job is to love God, love ourselves, and love our neighbor.
