We Do NOT Love the Lord our God. And Our Neighbor We Would Crush.

If loving God with all our heart is the Christian standard, we are probably frickin' toast. If the greatest commandment (and "the second command, which is like it") have binding authority over us and determine if we are on Jesus' team....Oof. These things read like our damnation.

I don't know about you, but I know that I suck at both of those. And I look around, and I see a lot in that boat with me. We are constant, daily, idolaters, most of us. We worship that which is not the Creator, and we love our neighbor to the extent they help and please us. 

Pope Benedict XVI said of the Youth Catechism: "This catechism was not written to please you. It will not make life easy for you, because it demands of you a new life. It places before you the Gospel message as the 'pearl of great value'." The same could be said of the Gospel today. It is hard to realize that in not focusing on individual precepts of the Torah, Jesus was not making his Law "easier"— but he was trying to save us from ourselves.

(image credit: Elizabeth Scalia's book, Strange Gods)