THEME: LOVE OF GOD AND NEIGHBOUR
READINGS: Deuteronomy 6:2-6 / Hebrews 7:23-28/ Mark 12: 23-28
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time
INTRODUCTION
In the first reading, Moses instructed the Israelites about the greatest commandment of love of God (cf. Deut. 6:2-6). While our Lord Jesus Christ reaffirms this greatest commandment, He teaches us that it is inseparable from the commandment of love of our neighbour (cf. Mark 12:23-28).
- THE TWIN GREATEST COMMANDMENTS
REASONS WHY THE LOVE OF GOD AND NEIGHBOUR ARE THE TWIN GREATEST COMMANDMENTS: Firstly, to love God is the greatest commandment because:
- His nature is love: “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16)
- He created us in His image and likeness (Gen. 1:26-27) – the image and likeness of divine love; we were created to reflect divine love
- It was out of love that He offered His Son in sacrifice to save us (cf. John 3:16; 1 John 4:9-10). So, we should respond to His love: “We love [God] because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
Secondly, created in God’s image and saved by His love means that we are to love others who are God’s image and His children through salvation. Hence, St. John exhorts us: “Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:11-12).
St. John continues:”Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also” (1 John 4:20-21).
Therefore, the commandments of love of God and of neighbour are like the two sides of a coin or the two wings of a bird. They go hand in hand. They are inseparable.
- LOVE OF GOD
In today’s first reading, Moses instructed the Israelites about the preeminent commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deut. 6:5). At the time Moses delivered this message, the concept of the “heart” among his people included the thinking faculty. However, centuries later, when Jesus addressed His people, a distinction had been made between the “heart” and the “mind”. Hence, Jesus stated the first commandment as follows: “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). This commandment means that we are to love God with our whole being; we cannot, for instance, pretend that we love God with our heart, while our mind doubts His existence.
2.1. “WITH ALL YOUR HEART” – The heart signifies our will, feelings or desires. Therefore, God should be our first and most prominent desire. We should let Him capture our feelings and desires, as well as submit to His will our choices or decisions in life.
2.2. “WITH ALL YOUR SOUL” – Firstly, the soul signifies our life (as no one can be alive without the soul). So, to love the Lord God with all our soul means that we should offer our whole life to Him. Secondly, the soul is our spiritual self. Therefore, to love God with all our soul is to entrust our entire spiritual self to Him through total devotion in worship.
2.3. “WITH ALL YOUR MIND” – The mind means our intellect, thoughts, reasoning or knowledge. If there is only one thing or person we should think about, it must be God. Therefore, let us seek to know Him more and more through His Word, our prayers and the preaching of His ministers. Again, each day let the thoughts of God dominate our thinking.
2.4. “WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH” – Our energy and good health should be used in activities which bring honour or glory to God.
- LOVE OF NEIGHBOUR
As noted already, after commanding us to love God, Jesus immediately added: “and the second commandment is like it: you shall love your neighbour as yourself”. (He took this from Lev. 19:18.)
What, then, does it mean to love our neighbour? Jesus says: if he/she is hungry, feed him/her; if he/she is thirsty, give him/her water; if he/she is naked, clothed him/her; if he/she is sick, visit him/her; if he/she is imprisoned, visit him/her; if he/she is stranded, welcome and help him/her (cf. Matt. 25:40-45). In short, be kind and compassionate to them as you wish should be done to you when in need.
St. Paul, in turn, explains what love of neighbour is. In the first place, he says that: “Love is patient and kind” (1 Cor. 13:4). He further explains that to love someone is to avoid doing him/her any evil: “Love does not envy; it is not rude; not selfish; it does not keep a record of wrong things; it does not rejoice in the downfall of the other …” (1 Cor. 13:5-7; see also Rom. 13:8-10).
CONCLUSION
Finally, as we love God who is Perfect Love and our neighbour who is a redeemed image of divine love, may we be eventually consumed by God’s love for all eternity. Amen!
By Most Rev. John Kobina Louis
