Saturday, in the 18th Week of Ordinary Time, August 9, 2025
Since, at least, 200 BC, and maybe as early as 600 BC, it became the norm for Jews to recite the first part of Deuteronomy 6 every morning, and every night. They cover their eyes and say:
שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל, יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ, יְיָ אֶחָד.
Hear O Israel, the Lord Our God, the Lord Alone.
This is THE prayer of Judaism, the creed if you will. And it is followed (on Saturdays especially) with the other three paragraphs of the passage.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.
And these words that I command you today shall be upon your heart.
You shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit in your home, when you walk on the way, when you lie down, and when you rise.
You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
I want to focus for a moment on the Second line: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.” It’s that last word, “Might”, that is not what we think it is. (If you don’t know, ... I love languages). I say this all the time, translations are sometimes difficult to use for meaning and English is a really bad when it comes to conveying meaning. That last word in the line, “might”. We think of it as an adverb: might, strength, etc. But that’s not exactly what the original line in Hebrew says. It says: u’v’chol m’odecha, which is not an adverb. It's a noun. It was translated to be an adverb in Greek and was carried on to every translation since.
In Hebrew, the word “Meod” is the adverb “very”. It is a word used hundreds of times in the Old Testament. When God creates the world, he constantly says it was “meod” or “very” “Good”. But in the passage in Deuteronomy today, the word is “m’odecha” which is a noun based on the word “meod”. It is a noun that is NOT used anywhere else in all of the Torah. It’s meaning is “the veryness” or the “very being”. It implies our whole being, all that we are and have.
This whole idea of M’odecha vs Meod changes the whole feeling of the passage. It’s no longer to do it with the “best of your ability” or to “give it your best shot”. It is to make it EVERY LAST PART OF WHO YOU ARE AT YOUR CORE. This, to make it love of God the whole of our being, is the true meaning here.
The passage goes on to show its importance in practice: write it on your gates, teach it to your children morning and night. This is why Jews from so early a time said it to open and close their day. The same holds true for us as Christians: We are to love God with all of our being. We are to remember him in all that we do.
In the 2nd Century, Tertulian said that the Christian does everything with the sign of the cross: when we eat, when we rise, when we work, when we speak, everything. We live for God in our every moment so that our faith does not waiver.
Look now to the Gospel passage today. The disciples are complaining to Jesus that, although he said they could, they can’t seem to cast out the demon. Why? Because they lacked full faith in Him. And he calls them out on it. To all of us, this is a message. A reminder to have faith. Faith that defines us, not to just “attempt to have faith”.
This is especially true for our deacon candidates here today. You are about to embark on a great mission after your ordination. Your faith, your faith present in EVERY moment of your life, to the core of your being, is going to be ESSENTIAL. This constant, daily, multiple times a day, reminder of God, your duty to love Him, to serve Him, to have faith in Him, is what it going to carry you through. It is what will give you the strength to do His work even in the hardest of times.
So, embrace your faith! Remember God in all you do. Don’t let a minute go by when you aren’t reminded that God, that love for God, must be “not just to the best of your ability” but “the core of your veryness”.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and all of your BEING.