While I was in residence at Futuna, a retreat centre in the hilly suburb of Karori, we had for a time a Dutchman, Barry Bruns, as the centre’s chef.
I once asked him, “Is there a golden rule to cooking?”
He looked up from the pot he was stirring and said, quite deliberately, “You can always add, but never subtract.”
Too much salt or sugar or baking powder at the beginning means too much salt or sugar or baking powder.
In this Sunday’s Gospel from St Matthew (22:34–40), a lawyer approaches Jesus with a question like my cooking question. He asks, “Teacher, which commandment in the Law is the greatest?”
By rabbinical count, the Law contained some 613 commandments. Which was the greatest was a question much discussed, debated and argued over.
Barry added a further comment: “A very good chef can adapt the recipe to obscure the mistake. Equally, a connoisseur of fine food can recognise the obscuration!”
Jesus replied to the lawyer: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment.”
There is a temptation to obscure the first commandment, “Love your God”, with the second: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
A note of caution: a connoisseur of fine loving will recognise the obscuration!30