There is a lot of talk about love in today’s readings. In the first reading, we hear Moses tell God’s people to “love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” The responsorial psalm repeats, “I love you, Lord, my strength.” The second reading reminds us that Jesus gave himself as the perfect sacrifice for all of us – the ultimate sign of his love for us. And in the Gospel, we hear Jesus repeat Moses’ command and add the command to “love your neighbor as yourself”, declaring “there is no commandment greater than these.” Yes, we hear a lot about love in our readings – our lessons from God – this morning.
Of course, it’s important to understand what we mean by love here. Unfortunately, that word is used in so many ways that it’s often confusing. We say “I love your hair cut,” and “I love my hot dog,” and, “I love you.” Sometimes, we just mean that we like something. And, sometimes, when we say we love someone it’s because of what the other can do for us or because of the emotional or physiological reaction we experience in someone’s presence. The love that today’s readings are talking about is none of these, however. Rather, it is specifically God’s love for us and how we are called to reflect that love in our lives. We believe God is love. By his very nature, he loves. After all, God is a loving communion of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And, God’s love extends beyond himself to all of creation and especially to us – we, whom he made in his image and likeness. God sees a reflection – dim as it may sometimes be – of his divine goodness in us. God freely loves us in spite of our faults, our imperfections, weaknesses and sinfulness. God’s love is unconditional. How blessed we are to know this about God. And, as God loves, he commands us to do the same. You will notice, it is not a suggestion or a nice idea – it is a command. God calls us to put him first in our lives, before our worldly goods, our ambitions and everything else that consumes our daily lives, in grateful response to his love for us. He also commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Again, this is a command, not a suggestion. And, these are commands because they lead us to the true fulfillment of ourselves, we who have been made in the image of God.
As I mentioned a moment ago, Jesus’ answer to the scribe’s question in today’s Gospel begins with an echo of the words of Moses in today’s first reading from Deuteronomy. Known as the “Shema”, this biblical verse is the most ancient prayer of the Jewish people, recited in the morning and evening by observant Jews to this day. The second commandment that Jesus cites is also found in the Hebrew Scriptures. In the Book of Leviticus, we read: “Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your own people. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
The words Jesus spoke were not new, nor were they foreign to the Jewish people of his day. In fact, they were among the most beloved of the Jewish tradition. What was new, however, was that Jesus linked the command to love your neighbor to the love of God. This link is so crucial that, in Matthew’s version of this encounter, we hear Jesus conclude by saying, “The whole law and the prophets depends on these two commandments.” The scribe greets Jesus’ response with delight in today’s Gospel, adding that to love God and love our neighbor “is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
We might wonder, if these words were so well known to the Jews of Jesus’ time, why was this exchange recorded in the gospels at all? If you look, you will find this story presented in three of the Gospels – Matthew, Mark and Luke – perhaps, because, much like us, the people of Jesus’ time needed to be reminded of what was most important. As you know, the Jewish people consider themselves to be the people of the law because God gave them the 10 Commandments when he established his covenant with them. Jewish tradition holds that there are 613 commandments to be found within the Torah, and they were all to be carefully observed. Jesus is saying that, in loving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves we are, in fact, keeping them all. As Saint Augustine said so well several centuries later: “Love God, then do as you will.” And, he could say this because love of God is inextricably connected to love of neighbor, since every one of us is loved by God. If God loves everyone, then we, each made in the image and likeness of God, are to love everyone. But, as we see in both Matthew’s and Mark’s account of this teaching, the Jewish leaders had forgotten that and focused just on calling the faithful to show their love for God. And so, they got caught up in the details of daily temple life and such thorny issues as authority, taxes and resurrection; you can read all about that prior to the passage we hear in today’s Gospel. None of their disputes and questions, however, get to the heart of what it means to live a life worthy of the kingdom of God.
As we approach the end of the church year, now is a good time to take stock of our lives. In every moment of our lives, we are given a choice. Are there places we have strayed from the essential core of Jesus’ message? Do my actions and my very being communicate our love of God and neighbor? It’s so easy to just reduce our relationship with God and each other as an exercise in following all of the rules. But, God calls us to live in love. The rules are just guidelines to help us stay on the right path. As we grow in love of God, however, reflecting on God’s abundant blessings in our lives, and we see the reflection of God’s love in one another and strive to help each other truly become who God calls us to be – images and likenesses of God – then, like the scribe in today’s Gospel, we are not far from the kingdom of God.