Before we look into Jesus’ response, let’s first look at the commandments themselves. How many commandments do we have? Yes, we have 10 commandments. Why do we have the commandments? Is it simply to control our actions? Is it to tell us what not to do? Well, the commandments are our Instructional book on how to live life well. God gives us these guides, these rules so that we may live a heavenly life here so that we can be with him forever in heaven.
So, we return to the Gospel and we hear that the scribe asked Jesus what is the greatest of all the commandments. What is the greatest instruction that God has given to us as a way to live our life well and close to Him. Jesus responds with the Shema. The Shema, known in English as the Golden rule was one of the first ways that God revealed himself to the ancient people of Israel. He said, “Listen O Israel, The Lord your God is one God. You are to love Him with all your heart, mind, and strength.” When they were coming into the promised land, a land occupied with people who believed in many gods, The Lord said that this is the instruction above all else that you are to follow. They took it so seriously that many of them placed it on a scroll and wore it on their foreheads as a symbol that they always had the Shema on their mind.
For us, we have the Shema in our homes. I remember growing up seeing the Shema in my kitchen. You might have the golden rule in your hallway or living room. Regardless, it is well known as the greatest of God’s instruction to us. The instruction is good for us. We are to have no other God but the lord, if we hope to live this life well and live forever with Him in Heaven. Indeed, the Shema, I believe is the one commandment of God that exists in Heaven.
Think about it. In Heaven, there is no room for anything to take the place of God as our Lord. No power, no position, no pleasure, no possession. Nothing. Only the Lord will be our God and we will love Him with all our Heart, mind, soul, and strength. We will worship Him completely and totally because He is God.
I would like to take this time for you to reflect briefly on heaven. When was the last time you really though about heaven? What is your image of heaven? Are their clouds? What are people doing? I think it really is important for us to think about Heaven. Why? Because, it is the end of our spiritual journey. We need to know what our end is for us to get there. So, let’s look at heaven. Heaven will be where we totally live for God. Our entire being will be oriented toward Him. However, we will not lose our personality or our individuality when we are caught up in the life of God. We will be in a radical communion. For this reason, we can say with certainty that there are saints in heaven. There are people who are with God. And we can talk to them. Several days ago we celebrated the holy day of obligation of All Saints. We came hear to celebrate the reality that all of our favorite saints are in heaven. Saint Mary, the Blessed Virgin, Saint Joseph, Saint Anthony, my favorite Saint, St. Phillip Neri. They all are there. We can talk to them. They can talk to us. We can even in faith believing that our Loved one is in Heaven talk to them. The Golden Rule states that we are to love others as we love ourselves. IN Heaven we will love others as God loves them. We will love ourselves as God loves us. In heaven therefore we will know all the special people that we have in life if they are in heaven, not as we know them but as God knows them. This is great news.
I have asked youth what they think heaven is like. Often times they will say that it must be boring. Why do they say this? Well, I think they believe heaven to be like Church. They have to sit still, they have to be silent, and they have to sing and they think - Oh no, Im going to be bored doing that for eternity. Well, I would like to offer you another way of looking at heaven. Heaven is like a great party. It has music. It has dancing. It has great food. It has laughter and jokes. It has all your favorite people, your family and friends and you are getting along. It is the best of all the parties and magnified a million times over.
Or it is like that love you felt when you first were infatuated with a boy or girl. Perhaps that love which has been matured over years of living and loving. That is magnified a million times over and we are getting to glimpse what heaven might be like. Heaven is everything good and amazing, and awesome and great that we have here on earth and we magnify it. That is heaven.
You see this is not just God’s instruction for us in Heaven, but it is our way to live a heavenly life. When we implement this in our lives, we have one toe in Heaven. When I was in Rome, I met a seminarian from Santa Fe, Deacon Simon. Deacon Simon, radiated a joy and a love that only comes from a life lived totally for Jesus Christ. He thought about Jesus, He prayed, He loved others as Jesus would love. This showed in a man who was genuinely filled with joy. On the way back from a dinner, he with excitement said that he had to buy us his favorite ice-cream and of course I had to accept. But, when he got there he saw someone in line who needed help and he ran to help them, and then joked with them and made them feel completely comfortable. Deacon Simon has a toe in heaven.
Another man, Blessed John Paul II was known for this in his life. On a visit to Washington DC, he went to the shrine to the Immaculate Conception and asked Cardinal McCarrick to take him to the Eucharistic Chapel. When he arrived, he knelt and time seemed to be suspended and a glow seemed to come from him. Blessed John Paul II as a man of deep prayer had one foot in heaven.