In our Gospel today, a lawyer asks Jesus which is the greatest commandment in the Law. Jesus’ response takes us to the very heart of what it means to live as a person of faith.
Jesus quotes that part of the Shema, the essential creed of Judaism, found in Deuteronomy 6:5: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” It is an injunction to an unreserved love of God. God is not to be loved with only a part of our lives. Our heart, mind, soul and strength are to be directed towards God.
But it is what Jesus does next that makes his reply so powerful. Using the rabbinical interpretive method of “equal categories,” he couples Deuteronomy 6:5 with the commandment concerning love of neighbour in Leviticus 19:18: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Both commandments begin with the words, “You shall love…”
For Jesus, these two commandments cannot be separated. Love of God inevitably finds expression in the way we treat other people. We cannot claim to love God while remaining indifferent to the needs, dignity and suffering of our neighbour.
Jesus concludes: “On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets also.” In other words, these two forms of love provide the foundation upon which the whole life of faith rests.
This Gospel challenges us to examine both dimensions of our lives. How deeply do we love God? And how does that love become visible in the way we treat those around us?
Sometimes we may find it easier to speak about our love of God than to demonstrate love towards a difficult neighbour, a stranger, or someone whose views and experiences differ from our own. Yet Jesus reminds us that the two belong together.
To love God is to allow God’s love to flow through us. The love we receive from God becomes the love we are called to share with others.
Fr Stephen Berecz