To read the texts click on the texts: Ex 22:20-26; 1 Thess 1:5-10; Mt 22:34-40
There
is an immortal poem written by Englishman, Leigh Hunt about a man called Abou
Ben Adhem. Abou Ben Adhem woke from his sleep one night and saw in his room an
angel writing in a book of gold the names of those who love God. “And is mine
one?” inquired Abou. “Nay, not so,” replied the angel. “I pray thee, then,”
said Abou, “Write me as one who loves his fellow men and women.” The following
night the angel came again and displayed the names of those who love God. Abou
Ben Adhem’s name was on top of the list.
This poem makes the point that
true love of God and true love of our fellow human beings are like two sides of
the same coin. One cannot exist apart from the other.
That is what we find in
today’s gospel in which Jesus is asked about the greatest commandment in the
law. Though he is asked for the greatest commandment only, in his response
Jesus gives what at first glance seem like two but which are in reality one.
True love of God and true love of neighbour is practically one and the same
thing.
Jesus is here reacting against
a one-dimensional understanding of love. For Jesus, true love must express
itself in the vertical and horizontal dimensions. The vertical dimension refers
to the love which a person has for God and the horizontal dimension to that
love for God which must be expressed in love for the other. He even goes so far
as to say this is the summation of the law and prophets, namely the summation
of all that has ever been said by anyone. Thus, the first entails the second,
the second presupposes and depends on the first. In neither case, however, is
love construed as an emotion.
Love for one’s neighbour means
acting toward others with their good, their well-being, their fulfillment, as
the primary motivation and goal of our deeds. Such love is constant and takes
no regard of the perceived merit or worth of the other person.
Love of God, on the other
hand, is to be understood as a matter of reverence, commitment, and obedience.
It is at once an acknowledgement of God’s identity as Creator, Sustainer and
Redeemer and a reflection of that reality in the ordering of our lives. With
this orientation toward God and others, the law and the prophets have reached
their ultimate goal.
The first reading from Exodus
provides some help in understanding why these commands are interrelated.
Whenever someone is wronged, hurt or forgotten, God hears their cry. Whenever
one fails to regard the needs of the neighbour, he or she has broken trust with
the God of compassion. After all, the Exodus text reminds the hearers of their
own position as strangers and foreigners. The same God who took compassion on
them when they were in exile now looks to see his own spirit of compassion
living on in them. The God of love first and foremost draws all people into a loving
relationship with himself.
God’s love is also evident in
Paul’s earliest record of his ministry. In his first letter to the
Thessalonians, Paul acknowledges that it takes courage to declare the Gospel in
the face of opposition. This Gospel is about Jesus the tangible expression of
God’s unconditional love. His sole intention in coming to earth was to save
people from their sins by manifesting to them the reality of the unconditional
love of God. This love experienced by them was a love that became visible in
their actions towards their neighbours. The reason for the opposition is
because people prefer to lead selfish and self centered lives rather than have
the courage to live other centered lives like Jesus. Those with advantage tend
to regard the existing order as appropriate.
We live in a world that is
quickly being destroyed by consumerism and greed. It is a world in which to
“have more” is more important than to “be more” and even if this having more is
at the cost of giving less and sometimes nothing to others. It is a world in
which we turn our heads as the rainforests burn and glaciers melt only because
we want to live in bigger houses and drive bigger cars that consume more oil
and gas than can be produced. It is a world that answers the “wants” of a few
by destroying more and more of God’s creation. It is a world in which those
with enough and more clothes for themselves dare to take away their neighbour’s
only cloak and leave him or her naked.
Thus being loving and
compassionate involves more than mere kindness. It is the passion to develop
strategies and structures to lift up those who are down. If our political and
economic systems allow the marginalized to fall between society’s cracks, then we
who have been loved into action by a compassionate God are encouraged to
challenge the existing order or to find ways to alter their predicament. To
fail to do this is to lose God in the chaos of society.
Only when we show this love
for neighbour in so tangible a manner that we can profess to love God.
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