A visitor enquires whether the second commandment is the one given by Moses, “you shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain”, or the one given by Jesus, “love your neighbor as yourself”.

Dear Father Angelo,

I am contacting you because I need clarification on one issue: the second commandment states: do not take the name of God in vain.

In the Gospel, Jesus states that the second commandment is: love your neighbour as yourself.‌

So to this day, if I asked you what the second commandment is, which one would be correct?‌

Is “love your neighbour as yourself” to be considered a commandment in the same way as the others, or is it, so to speak, an extra addition that Jesus made, but not a real commandment like the others?‌

Thank you.

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The priest’s answer

Dearest,

1.Moses delivered the 10 commandments from God.

The Jews added many more to these commandments, for a total of 613: 248 were precepts and 365 were prohibitions.

2.Then a scribe, a teacher in Israel, asked the Lord which was the greatest of all the commandments.

Here is what we read in the sacred text: “Then one of the scribes, when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well he had answered them, asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus replied, “The first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

(Mark 12, 28-31).

These are the two precepts of charity given to us by Jesus Christ.

3.Jesus, therefore, summarised all the commandments of the Old Testament in the two precepts of charity.

The scribe was so impressed that he said, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, ‘He is One and there is no other than him.’ And ‘to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself’ is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mark 12, 32-33).

4.Therefore, alongside the Ten Commandments, there are the two precepts of charity given by Jesus Christ in the New Testament.

These two precepts of charity summarise all the ancient precepts and also state the spirit in which they must be observed: that of love.

5.It should be noted that the two precepts of charity proposed by Jesus Christ are so inseparable that Jesus concludes by saying: ‘There is no other commandment greater than these’ (Mk 12, 31).

He did not say: there are no other commandments, but there is no other commandment because he makes the two into one.

6.So if we want to see how great our love for God is, we have only to look at how great our love for our neighbour is.

If this is lacking, then our love for God is also lacking, despite the sighs and desires of the soul.

I bless you, wish you all the best, and remember you in my prayers.

Father Angelo

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