Can we ask really important questions?

Later, as a student, I started going to the library in our town. It was not big, but there were many beautiful books in it. I may have gone through all the works of the Three Searchers , as well as all the Winnetouvka or the collection of Sons of the Great Bear books . And many others. Even there, I was worried and interested in how it would turn out. How will the solution of the mystery turn out, how will the battle between good and evil turn out, what will happen. 

In my childhood fantasy, I imagined that I was one of the participants in the action and how I would probably react. Could I handle it? Did he experience dramatic moments? Did he not disappoint? Those were really important questions. Most important! Almost existential at this stage of my life.

Not to mention that I hid my first dagger, wooden axe, bow, arrows and similar important instruments that a good hunter or warrior should have with him. I got yelled at more than once for that, but I told myself that when I needed to use them, only then would everyone appreciate that I had them ready to use night after night.

Only gymnasium brought change. I realized that I would not be a searcher in an abandoned haunted castle or an Indian somewhere on the American prairie. And I started doing something serious. Later I understood that I was not the first, and the pilot in  The Little Prince had already experienced something similar : “The adults advised me to stop drawing open or closed riddles and to be more interested in geography, history, numbers, and grammar.” 

And indeed, the months and years with my grandfather made me interested in history. And also thanks to the Slovak woman, whose name is preferred not to be spoken among our classmates even after decades (and who, even years after the “tender” one, kept repeating to us that everything was good and right under communism and that the students were smarter and better), I then he learned that in the next town they have a library that is much bigger.

On my first visit, I found that there were indeed a lot of books, so I started going there. Regularly once, sometimes even twice a month, I went to the next town and borrowed four, five, sometimes even six books, and on the way home on the train I started reading one of them. I was curious what new things I would learn. I knew a lot from my conversations with my grandfather, but the more I knew, the more questions I had. And they weren’t just childish anymore, I wanted to know a lot and truthfully. It just made sense. I didn’t want to read fables, I wanted facts – or at least authentic memories.

In today’s Sunday’s Gospel, one of the scribes comes to Jesus and asks him the question: “Which commandment is the first of all?” We can assume that he wanted to tempt him. Maybe he wanted to, because he was a scholar of the law, and so he knew which of the commandments was the most important. And who else should “test” others, if not the coder.

But perhaps with this question he wanted to verify whether Jesus would point to himself as a “leader” or confirm that he comes as God’s servant, the Father’s Son, who testifies to the Father’s love and to the Father’s love. This possibility is also real. And maybe, just maybe, he was convinced that Jesus was the Son of God and wanted confirmation from God himself that what the scribe wrote in the “Law” was real truth worth living by.

“Which commandment is (then) the first of all?” – I need to know the answer to this question, because if I don’t know it, I won’t know how to live a real life. This is no longer about fables, made-up stories, science fiction or romance. This is about life – and the lawgiver certainly knew that it was about eternal life.

It sounds pessimistic, but it seems that nowadays, unfortunately, not so many people go to libraries. And maybe many don’t even read. The first can be explained and understood in the way that, thanks to the Internet and the online world, we can read many good books and learn interesting knowledge immediately and at any time. Directly from the room or the train and without a reader’s card.

I also listened to Martin Kukučín’s audiobook Rysavá jalovica in the car today . An imperfect audiobook of a perfect book. The second, not reading, cannot be understood in any way, and it also has its consequences, and not only on our grammar and vocabulary, but also on knowledge, intellect, wisdom. And actually one more thing – and the unknown coder also knew this very well – and that is whether we can ask really important questions, or even what is really important to us.

There are many questions that echo into the airwaves of today’s world. And even more answers. As if we wanted to cover quality with quantity. But it’s exactly as if we want to replace five liters of sour and disgusting “wine” with the enjoyment of the taste of really delicious, high-quality and smile-helping real wine. Whoever has tasted real wine cannot get drunk with hectoliters of vinegar.

Therefore, when we ask ourselves questions today and look for answers, let the merit of our lives be the answer of Jesus Christ: “He is the only one, and besides him there is no other; and to love him with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength’ and ‘to love your neighbor as yourself’ is more than all burnt offerings and other sacrifices.”

Let us ask whether the love of God and neighbor is the “study” of one’s own blood “under a microscope from a dragon”, whether the love of God and brothers and sisters are such changes in the laws that release criminals and allow them to laugh in the face of honest people .

Is it a life of love for God and neighbor, if I distort the past and make a virtuous citizen out of a collaborator of the regime that killed tens of millions of people around the world and thousands in Slovakia, or cynicism towards the victim and exalting the aggressor. For “whatsoever ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me.”

Love is wholeness. Not only to God, but also to people. Not only to people, but also to God. If we are not whole and consistent, we can be well-educated, influential, rich, and prophets of our time, but we will