Today’s Readings refer to love, about which we all wax philosophical. And we have the added advantage of getting Our Lord’s invaluable perspective on it. After all, in Him we have a High Priest who offered the supreme sacrifice of His life for the love of mankind.
From the First Reading (Deut. 6: 2-6) we can conclude that God – the True God, and He alone – is the first and last object of our love; everything else flows from there on. Hence, Moses said to the people, ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.’ Totally.
Considering the extent of God’s love for us, is it not our bounden duty to love Him in return? His love is inscribed upon our hearts, for we are made in the image and likeness of God Who is Love. In this regard, we may recall the basic teaching we imbibed in our catechism class, in the form of two simple yet profound questions and answers: ‘Who made you?’ God made me. ‘Why did God make you?’ God made me to know Him, love Him and serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him forever in the next.
Centuries after Moses, Jesus added a new dimension to love when a scribe asked Him to identify the greatest commandment. In today’s Gospel (Mk 12: 28-34), our Divine Master quotes verbatim that passage from Deuteronomy, and adds: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.’ The scribe was quick to admit, to Jesus’ delight, that ‘to love one’s neighbour as oneself is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.’
This brings us face to face with three loves, so to speak: love of God, love of neighbour and love of self. And the question is, how do we begin loving? Love of self, which comes naturally to us, can quickly turn into narcissism and pride. For that matter, love of neighbour is more easily said than done, for we are quicker to love ourselves than to love our neighbours, aren’t we?
That is because self-interest is a survival skill that rules the roost. So, it seems easier to relate to God – by loving Him who first loved us. But then, some may wonder how we can love God who is invisible when we haven’t first loved our neighbour who is next door… The fact is that, left to ourselves, our fallen nature determines what we do. Thus, loving becomes an uphill task unless we receive God’s grace – of which the Sacraments are mystical channels.
As for the love of God, it is no plain emotion or whim. It is a resolution that made upon due appreciation of God’s plan of salvation… When we see that He who is wrapped in purple robes, with planets in His care, has pity on the least of things (as Yeats puts it in the ‘Ballad of Father Gilligan’); that He who looks on the birds of the sky surely cares for us too, who are more valuable in His eyes (Cf. Mt 6: 26) – we open ourselves to God. Finally, the realisation that the world is transitory where Heaven is where we spend eternity clinches it.
By such a supernatural approach to life, power and pelf lose their hold on us. When we compare our present life with what God has promised, people and things, and even self, pale into insignificance. Then we are convinced that ‘He must increase, but I must decrease,’ as St John the Baptist has stressed. By and by, at a higher rung of our ascent to God, we begin to say with St Paul: ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me’ (Gal 2: 20). Then, God’s love in us overflows into our neighbour’s heart through what we do.
It would be silly to believe that loving God, loving neighbour and loving self happens sequentially. It is one whole. But does it mean that one must indiscriminately bow to each and every one? Consider the person who gives scandal and becomes his neighbour’s tempter; he damages virtue and integrity and may even draw his brother into spiritual death (Cf. CCC #2284). Can we relate to them in the same way as we do to those who follow God’s commandments and stand by Him?
Much harm is caused to the world when, in the name of ‘love’, we close our eyes to malicious and criminal acts, saying, ‘Who am I to judge?’ There are those who preach love as long as they have not been offended – and yet it matters little to them if God is offended! But then, can we wash our hands like Pilate? Must we not stand up, speak up?
God calls on us to distinguish between what is true and false, good and bad, right and wrong. That is, we need to discern – and not have acts of foolishness styled as acts of love. For instance, opening your houses and parishes and countries to people inimical to what we believe as Christians is a recipe for self-destruction. Our Lord’s command to ‘be cunning as a serpent and yet as harmless as doves’ (Mt 10: 16) is thus pertinent even when we talk of love.
We may therefore conclude that we must love God above all things – for His own sake; and we must love our neighbour as ourselves – for the love of God! (Cf. CCC # 1822).
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That point about opening our homes, countries to those inimical to our Christian beliefs is significant, and deserves much reflection.
When a person gets older and contemplates death, there is a yearning, deeper than ever, to get to the bottom of things, especially Faith. That has been my experience. One of the things I found (and continue to find) difficult, to put it mildly, is the – Love thy neighbour as you love yourself! At some point I had to come to terms that this was impossible for me. What I could live with, however, is – Treat others as you would like to be treated. There is probably a qualitative difference between the two, but this trumps the other because this is achievable and the other was not, for me. The need for accommodation in the present society, where diversity is a given, and one never knows what new surprise is coming our way, the only approach is to remain clear eyed in one’s own convictions and ask that everyone respects each others’ boundaries.
Thank you, Oscar, for your inspiring and grounding reflections.