And that, I believe, is what this text from Deuteronomy does. It gives us distance and perspective. It sounds the one crucial and definitive note that points to the heart of the great crowd’s thundering. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” That is what you are to hear. That is the heart of it, Deuteronomy says. And then, century upon century later, the Pharisees come and ask, “Teacher, what is the great commandment?” and the words that Jesus answers them with are the same words. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. This is the first and great commandment.” 

   Love God. We have heard the words so often that we no longer hear them. They are too loud to hear, too big to take in. We know the words so much by heart that we scarcely know them any longer as words spoken to the heart out of a mystery beyond all knowing. We take the words so much for granted that we hardly stop to wonder where they are seeking to take us. Above all else, the words say, you shall love—not, first your neighbor as yourself because that is second and comes later. On the contrary, it is God you shall love first before you love anything else, and you shall love him with all that you are and all that you have it in you to become—whatever that means, whatever that involves. The words don’t explain. They just proclaim and command.  

A Room Called Remember - Frederick Buechner