Gospel: Mt 22:34-40
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law tested him by asking, Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with your entire mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Homily
I remember as a young boy growing up that my parents would always say to me that it was not important to them what I became in life as long as I chose what I wanted to become and was the best that I could be at whatever I chose. Included in that statement was the understanding that what I chose would not be unlawful. I remember of course thinking that this was strange as most parents wanted their children to be doctors or lawyers etc. As I grew older and entered religious life, my studies in philosophy took me on a journey of serious reflection on love and I came to understand that love allowed the person loved to be free, to choose and create and build relationships without coercion. I came to understand that love is not emotion, although emotion can help love. Love is a decision of the will to do the best that one can for the other, which is to allow the other to be the image of God who is totally free and creative.
As I read the Gospel passage for this weekend, those thoughts came to mind because for me, we cannot understand this saying of Jesus without truly understanding the meaning of love.
“To love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with your entire mind.” is to allow God to love and build relationships with whomsoever God wills. This is extremely difficult for us especially when the person in question has been someone who may have done us tremendous harm. Some one who has destroyed our good name or raped or murdered a loved one. We think it difficult or even impossible to forgive and we want God to do be like us. To love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with our entire mind is to want God to free that person from their slavery and addictions which caused them to do the harm which they did.
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“To love your neighbor as yourself” is to help the neighbour fulfill his/her potential which at its most profound level is to be true to the totally free and creative God in whose image he/she has been made. It stands to reason therefore that this freedom is never for evil but always for Good. Love therefore never forces or coerces, always seeks the greater good and above all creates life-giving relationships.
Jesus then finishes his reply to the Pharisees by telling them that; “The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” In other words the key to understand Law whether laws are good or bad must always be “Love” or in other words does this specific law help persons to reach their fullest potential as made in the image of a totally free and creative God.
Love is a habit that has to be developed. In a real sense love is a verb, not a noun. It is by loving that we build the habit of loving both God and neighbour. This is what disciples of Jesus do. That is why the saints did the work that they did, always helping persons, whether uneducated, or sick, or abandoned or criminals, achieve their fullest potential as images of the totally free and creative God. This is what we must teach our children to do so that the world may be restored to what God conceived and created.
Prayer
All powerful and ever-loving God, in love you created us and in love you redeemed us. Send your Spirit to us so that we may understand the meaning of love and seek to love You our God, with all our heart, with all our soul, and with our entire mind and love our neighbours as your Son Jesus loves them. It will not be easy because of the habits to the contrary that we have created over the years but with your Spirit of wisdom and courage and strength, we will be able to love. We ask this through the intercession of Jesus your Son and Mary our mother. Amen
