The first commandment given to us by Our Father was “I Am the Lord your God . . . you shall have no other gods before Me” (Ex. 20:2-3). The superlative greatness of this commandment was clarified and confirmed by both God the Father and God the Son as “You shall love your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Dt. 6:5; Mt. 22:37).

Questions to ponder: How much do we, in reality, love God the Father? To what degree do we love Him with our hearts, souls, and minds? Most importantly, to what extent have we wilfully or not-so-wilfully inverted the order of greatness of the Divine mandate, by specifically placing and adhering to the precept “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22:39) before following the first commandment? Let us remember that the latter was again clarified by God the Son as being the “great and foremost commandment” (Mt. 22:38). Therefore how many times have we genuinely omitted to give Our Father His rightful due, under our generally vocal rationalization that we are following the second precept?