On this third Friday of Lent, the word of God, spoken through the prophet Hosea, on our lips in the responsorial psalm and in the words of Jesus in response to the scribe who asks, “which is the first of all the commandments?” calls us to “Return” to God, to “Listen to and Hear” God’s voice. To the scribe’s question on the commandments Jesus responds with the summary exhortation Moses made to our ancestors in the faith almost immediately after laying out for them the ten commandments, along with some practical applications, as the way to live every moment of every day out of loving obedience in response to the voice of God, Who out of love for us breathed us into being and guides us through every moment of life.

“Sh’ma Yisrael – 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, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”

The phenomenologist, philosopher, and convert from atheism, Edith Stein -- like Jesus, grew up in a devout Jewish household. Out of obedience to her mother, she would have prayed the Sh’ma twice a day. After her conversion, she entered into a Carmelite convent and took the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, and was killed at Auschwitz in the holocaust in 1945. The sainted martyr and doctor of the church –- a great patron saint for students, by the way, once said: “On the question of relating to our fellow man, our neighbor’s spiritual need transcends every commandment. Everything else we do is means to an end. But love is an end already, since God is love.”

Jesus is both the embodiment of the law and its fulfillment in love. He shows what it looks like and sounds like to truly hear God’s voice, to love God completely and out of that loving response, to love, serve and honor God dwelling in one’s neighbor. With all that we have on our hearts, on our souls and on our minds today, knowing well how much we need God in order to “blossom and bear fruit,” how might the Sh’ma help us to arrange our priorities and order our lives in loving obedience to God, so that every breath, word, prayer and action is a fitting response to God and act of love for our neighbor?