Preparation for Sunday mass: Matthew 22:34-40

34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"

37 He said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

- What is the test to which Jesus is put by the lawyer? What is the danger in such a question?

- How does Jesus answer the question? What is surprising in his answer?

- Are these two commandments? Can they be separated? What holds them together?

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* For an explanation of the Great Advent see here