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(1 Pet.4:1–11; Mark 12:28–37) One lawyer asked the Lord: “What is the first of all commandments?” The Lord answered: “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: this is the first commandment. The second is similar to it: love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30–31). And this goes to complement the image of the “hidden heart of man” (1 Pet. 3:4). The holiness of the Lord is his spirit, and love is his soul, and all the other virtues are his different members - now the hand, now the leg, now the eye, now the ear, now the tongue. A reminder of this is very useful, because sometimes it happens that, considering good deeds to be the final virtues, they think to get along with it alone, not thinking about the Lord, and forgetting about love. Such good deeds, without faith and the desire to please God, are not holy, like an unconsecrated house or a room without an icon; without love, it is like a building filled with lifeless statues, and, in addition, smacks of mustiness and mold. Everyone pay attention to this and, having undertaken to create a new person in yourself, try to place him before the Lord, who has no blemish. You might be interested in: