I beg to differ with Benedict, and will make my case in the words of the Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 22:37-40, to wit:
“’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ (Here quoting from Deuteronomy 6:5, although Deut. says “might” rather than”mind.”)
“This is the first and great commandment.
“And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
“On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Note that the Master declines to conflate love of God with love of neighbor, but rather posits two distinctly differently ranked commandments, the second subordinate to the first yet still a commandment from God.
“...but rather posits two distinctly differently ranked commandments, the second subordinate to the first....”
Where do you get the idea that the second is less than the first?
“I beg to differ with Benedict, and will make my case in the words of the Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 22:37-40,...”
You do understand that the only reason you can have any confidence at all the Christ actually said what Matthew records is because The Church determined 1600+ years ago that Matthew was worthy of belief and then only because most of it was consistent with what The Church “always and everywhere believed”?