Please read the Scripture passage before the homily.
Which is the greatest commandment of the Law? The Law cannot be boiled down to one precept. We must love God first of all, but we mut also love our neighbors as ourselves.
If we do not love other in loving God, it does not count. We cannot see God, so the only way we can see God is through others. The only way we have for showing our love for God is by loving other people.
The supreme law is to love God above everything and everyone else. Achieving love for God is a process that starts with our loving ourselves. It then progresses on to loving others, family, friends, community, all. Through this love for others, we come to love God.
We start life selfishly. We refuse to be born unless our mother promises to feed us. We spend the first two ears of our lives soaking up love until our parents pull the carpet out from under us and we learn that other people exist and count. We may become a big sibling to newer members or remain littler siblings for our older ones, we have to learn that these and other people belong in our lives. In this process, we also learn about God, who is important for us even though we cannot see God.
Our parents teach us to love others and introduce us to this God whom we cannot see. Somehow, we learn that God exists and that we can love God.
It was a Pharisee who started this passage. Jesus had silenced the other opponents. Jesus corrects him by explaining that there needs be at least two, not one, great commandment.
I must say a positive word about the Pharisees. St Paul was a Pharisee. Jesus seems to have been more Pharisee than any other subgroup of Jewish thought. In the Jewish revolt against Rome, the Jewish leaders had hoped that the followers of Jesus would fight on their side, but the Christians did not, for whatever reason. Because of this there was much ill feeling against the followers of Jesus. This antagonism is reflected in the pages of the Gospels.