Ex 22:20-26; Psa 18:2-4,47,51; 1 Thess 1:5-10; Matt 22:34-40
Theme: LOVE AND DO WHATEVER YOU WANT
Dearest friends, today’s readings invite us to reflect on the theme of LOVE. In the Gospel, Jesus summarizes all the commandments into one: LOVE. In the first reading, we see God explaining to the people of Israel how this love of the neighbor must be extended even to strangers. In the second reading, St. Paul praises and encourages the Thessalonians for the way they held unto the Gospel message, despite the great opposition they had to face, and in this way, they become great examples to all the believers, not only in the neighboring cities, but everywhere (1 Thess 1:7-8). We now reflect on the commandment of Love.
a. 613 Commandments Summarized in One
In the OT, we have the totality of 613 commandments of the Torah (365 negative and 248 positive). But how would one remember all these laws and live by them? The Pharisees came demanding to know, out of these 613 commandments of the Torah, which one is greatest. They are actually right with their question. Why bothering oneself with all those laws if one can simply choose the most important and the greatest of them all, and leave the hundreds of others?
In answering, Jesus did not just give them the law of love as the greatest of all the commandments but explain that the law of love is actually the tree that has branches. All other laws hang on the law of love (Matt 22:40). The love of God is not different from the love of neighbor, rather they belong together. The love of God entails the love of neighbor, while the love of neighbor presupposes and depends on the love of God. While the love of God motivates the love of neighbor, the love of neighbor expresses and demonstrates the love of God.
b. Love with all your heart, mind and soul
It would have been enough for Christ to say: “You shall love the Lord your God”, but he went on to add further important details on the necessity to involve the heart, mind and soul in this act of love. Heart represents seat of feeling; the mind represents seat of reasoning and thought, then the soul represents immortality/eternity. Christ knows that whatever action man puts out is first of all controlled and determined in and by these faculties. The corporal aspect of man carries out what has already been decided and concluded by the heart, and in the mind.
Hence, if the heart and mind and soul feel and think nothing but love, then the physical output will be product of love. When the heart beats love, when the mind thinks love, when the soul is groomed with love, the physical actions of man become nothing but love. But when these faculties lack love, it is always seen in the way one behaves. One cannot think evil and do good.
Our actions are the final products of our feelings, believes, thoughts, convictions, and decisions, all of which happen in the heart, mind and soul. Christ wants all our faculties to be controlled by the law of love because only when that is done, can we actually live out love.
c. Love the Lord Your God…(Why Must the Love of God be Fundamental?)
The love of God is given as the fundamental for the love of neighbor. Whenever I think of how necessary the love of God must go first, I remember the words of Jesus in Jn 12:24: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit.” Yes, a grain of wheat remains unnoticed and almost useless until it grows into a tree. When it becomes a tree, it becomes beneficial both to humans and to animals. But it cannot serve this good to humans and animals if it does not become a tree, and it cannot become a tree unless it first goes into the soil and allows the soil to swallow it and to build it and make it grow. Also, even when it has grown into a tree, it needs its roots to remain in the soil for it to continue to be alive and to serve man. Hence, if the grain of the wheat does not go into the soil, it will not grow, and if it does not remain seated in the soil after it becomes a tree, it dies off.
In the same way is our relationship with God and humans. We can offer wonderful things of ourselves for the good of others, but we must first of all establish our relationship with God, who will swallow us, make us to grow, keep us alive, and make us bear healthy and strong branches for the birds, and wonderful fruits and leaves for humans. It is only when we devote ourselves to loving God, to serving him and to doing his will, that he will teach us how to love our fellow human beings as he himself loves us. It is therefore an absolute self deception to think of humanism without God. It is an absolute madness and self deception to think that we can build a loving, just and peaceful society without God who is and who gives love, justice, and peace. Any love that is not built on God, that does not stem from God, and does not move from and back to God is simply wretched and destructive.
d. Love of God expressed in love of neighbors.
Just as it is a madness to imagine building love for humans without God, so also it is a complete madness to imagine love of God that blocks itself from humans. While God builds us up and makes us ready to bear love, our fellow humans give us the opportunity to manifest and express the love we have for God. How can we say that we love God whom we do not see while we cannot love our fellow human beings whom we see? Responding to this question, the holy apostle, says that we are nothing but liars when we think so (cf 1 Jn 4:20). It is wonderful to spend hours in prayers; it is excellent to make ourselves available to God in prayer, Holy Masses, sacraments etc. But these wonderful acts become complete when we translate the love of God in our heart into the love of neighbor whom we meet in our yards, places of work, markets, churches, and society. At the end of Holy Mass, the priest says, “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord with your life”. This means that, those who have gathered around the Holy Altar of the Lord, who have listened to his teachings, who have united themselves in prayer with the saints, and who have commemorated the Holy Sacrifice of the Eucharist, are now invited to go into the world and live out what they have heard, learnt and experienced.
e. “We Love Because God First Loved Us”
God does not demand something from us which we ourselves have not experienced. We are expected to love, not because it is a command but because we continue to receive love. From our creation to our redemption, it is all about God’s love poem and work for man. Imagine the numerous things God does for us which we take for granted. Imagine the many sacrifices of others (our parents, friends, those who do one community work or the other etc) which we remain directly and indirectly beneficiaries of. As the Scripture says, we love, not because God asks us to, but because he first loved us (1Jn 4:19). In the first reading (Ex 22:20-26), the people of Israel were to show love and mercy even to a stranger, because when they were strangers in Egypt, God showed them mercy and love.
Let our good experiences motivate us to do good to others, and let our bad experiences shield us from making others experience the same pain as we did.
Wishing you a lovely Sunday and glorious new week. Learn Love and Live Love!
Fr. Nnamah Henry C
Catholic Diocese of Aguleri