Twenty-Nine Words

In trying to live out the Gospel, I have to remind myself of this: keep it simple, stupid.  This coming Sunday's Gospel, the story of the Good Samaritan, helps me keep it simple.

In the reading, the "scholar of the law" recites what we must do to inherit eternal life:

You shall love the Lord, your God, 

with all your heart, 

with all your being, 

with all your strength, 

and with all your mind, 

and your neighbor as yourself.

Really very simple.  Incredibly difficult to accomplish, but simple in concept.

I wonder sometimes if we need much more than what we have in this reading.  Think of this: how many millions upon millions of words of scholarship have been written about how to achieve eternal life?  And here we have it summed up in just twenty-nine words.  

Don't get me wrong.  I'm all for scholarship and analysis, truly.  But honestly I don't have the mental bandwidth for much of it.  I need simple.

This is simple.  1) Love the Lord, your God.  2) Love your neighbor as yourself.  

If we were to lose all of the writings about how we should act to follow the way of Christ, but for these twenty-nine words, we would still have everything we need.

Peace to you and your house, for all time.

- The Older Brother