We have read that Jesus did not come to do away with the Law but to fulfill the Ten Commandments in a deeper and more complete way.
In the Gospel of Mark Jesus says to his disciples, “The first [commandment] is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and 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” (Mk 12:29–31).
Love of God and of neighbor is the center, the heart, of the Ten Commandments!
Saint Paul wrote, “Love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom 13:10).
Jesus taught this in the words he preached; but even more, he showed us what this love looks like by how he lived on earth.
In the Gospel of John, we read what Jesus did at supper on the night he was arrested. With this gesture Jesus showed his disciples how to follow a new commandment.
“[Jesus] got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another’ ” (Jn 13:4–5, 12–15, 34).
This is what is important and what Jesus asks of us: to love one another as brothers and sisters, to help and serve each other, to always choose humility and the strength that comes from what is truly good....
The one who loves like Jesus keeps each of the Ten Commandments and makes them real in his or her life!
