Sunday, May 16, 2010

Deut 6, 4 The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!

Deuteronomy 6 (chosen pages)

(Deut 6, 4) The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!

[4] Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!

(CCC 228) "Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD..." (Dt 6:4; Mk 12:29). "The supreme being must be unique, without equal… If God is not one, he is not God" (Tertullian, Adv. Marc., 1, 3, 5: PL 2, 274). (CCC 201) To Israel, his chosen, God revealed himself as the only One: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might" (Dt 6:45). Through the prophets, God calls Israel and all nations to turn to him, the one and only God: "Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other…. To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. 'Only in the LORD, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength'" (Isa 45:22-24; cf. Phil 2:10-11). (CCC 2093) Faith in God's love encompasses the call and the obligation to respond with sincere love to divine charity. The first commandment enjoins us to love God above everything and all creatures for him and because of him (Cf. Deut 6:4-5). (CCC 2134) The first commandment summons man to believe in God, to hope in him, and to love him above all else.

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