Day Seventy -- Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?

Matthew 16:1 to Matthew 26:56

The second half of the Gospel according to Matthew shifts away from Jesus as the healer of diseases to Jesus as the awaited Messiah.  His disciples seem to be catching on, but not yet fully.  Opposition from the established religious leaders intensifies as he enters Jerusalem, but Jesus does not remain entirely passive in the face of their challenges.  His parables and teachings become more pointed even as he teaches that the greatest commandment is "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'  This is the first and the greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:37-39).  Hmmm -- I spent over two months reading the Old Testament and Jesus sums it up in two sentences.

Perhaps this is why Jesus was so hard on the teachers of the law and the Pharisees with what is called the "Seven Woes" (23:13-36).  God's intentions were to give us a way to live in peace and harmony with him and one another.  What the religious leaders had done was to forget that it was first and foremost about Love and replaced it with rules, regulations and rituals.  The greater tragedy was the failure to practice justice and mercy.  I often ponder how faithfully the Church of today is living out the "greatest commandment," and what are the "woes" that Jesus is trying to get us to hear and understand?