The Great Commandments

10-25-2020Weekly Reflection© J. S. Paluch Company

Love your neighbor. It sounds so simple. Yet it is not always east to accomplish. Many things get in the way of taking this commandment to heart. Sometimes, it is things that get in the way, but more often, we get in the way. We tend to see things through our own perspective, rather than considering the other person's point of view. In our interactions with others, we often fail to truly listen, focusing instead on our next response or point to be made. We say we love our neighbor, right up to the point at which doing so requires some sacrifice of time, attention, or financial support, and then suddenly, a thousand reasons for keeping to ourselves emerge. Jesus knew this when he summed up the greatest commandments of loving God and neighbor. Notice when he said about this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Love God

"You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind" (Mt 22:37). In this greatest and first commandment, Jesus describes deep and intentional love of God. Like the Thessalonians to whole St. Paul wrote, we are to turn away from anything that could become an idol, anything that takes first place in our lives ahead of God. Loving God so completely calls us to place our lives in the heart of God, assured that when we do, all will be well. When we love God with all our heart, soul and mind, we gradually learn to see the world and all people through the eyes of God, who is love.

Love Neighbor

When God gave the covenant to Moses, the commandments of loving God and neighbor were clear, including what love of neighbor is all about. For example, "You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourself in the land of Egypt" (Ex 22:20). In other words, care for the least among you; their struggles are not so difference from your own. And remember, they are precious in God's sight, as are you. All are held in love by our good and gracious God. Jesus is the ultimate sign of God's love, and the perfect model of what it means to love God. Jesus teaches that real love requires sacrifice. There are moments when loving our neighbor requires us to put the other person first. No long is it just nice to help the person who is poor, ill, lonely, in prison, homeless, or grieving. It is necessary. Their need is greater than our own. Failing to meet the person in his or her need is to ignore our very self. To love God is to love our neighbor; to love others is to love God, in whose image all are made.

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