Posted by The WORD in other words (2023) by Fr Simon Boiser SVD – Germany
30th Sunday in Ordinary Time – A
A man goes to daily Mass, joins pilgrimages, and is active in parish activities. But some parishioners complain that this man is a tyrant at home to his family and treats his workers badly. He will certainly claim to love God. This man feels he loves God even though he neglects to love his neighbor. On the other hand, there is a woman who no longer goes to Church. She believes that she is automatically loving God by serving others. She gives importance to charity without needing to have a personal relationship with God.
The man and woman mentioned above may fail to respond to what Jesus asks in today’s gospel. Their response partly fulfills the greatest commandment. Jesus says that loving God is the first and greatest commandment. From that relationship with God, the second commandment of loving others and yourself gets its meaning and importance. The two loves are not meant to be conflicting.
During Jesus’ time, there were 613 laws and precepts governing every aspect of human behavior, from washing one’s hands to eating certain animals. All these enslaved most Jews. The religious laws were so many that they often tried to distinguish the more important from the less important. Jesus takes two commandments from two books, i.e., Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, knits them together as one, and promotes them as top commandment. They summarize the Ten Commandments and the other Old Testament laws. By fulfilling these two commands, a person keeps all the others. If one truly loves God and his neighbor, he will naturally keep the commandments.
There is a particular order between these commandments: loving God comes first, then loving others as yourself comes second. St. Thomas Aquinas asked why we should love in a certain order: whether we should prefer those closest to us, whether we should love children or parents more, and so on. His answer: not all loves are equal. Some have priority, at least in some circumstances. It might be easy enough to love God, but the simple test of whether we do it or not is how we love or relate to our brothers and sisters. It might be easy with our blood relatives, but what about the widow, orphan, and poor?
Once love becomes our ‘fundamental option’ or ‘guiding paradigm,’ it will guide us amidst the complexities of our relationships in life. Godly love draws the whole person, intellect, will, emotions, and beliefs. It helps us love the right persons or things in the right way. Paradoxically, by giving God all our love, our heart is enlarged to love many others in boundlessly generous and inclusive ways.
