Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time  (October 23^rd 2011) 

Matthew 22:24-40

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Jesus repeats a commandment that would have been very well-known to his listeners

The Gospel passage this Sunday is very short, very simple and very direct. A doctor of the Law asks Jesus which is the greatest commandment. Jesus gives a reply that would have been very familiar to his Jewish listeners. Hillel, the celebrated rabbi, said that the whole Law rested on a single pillar: the prescription to love the Lord with all your heart, all your mind, and with all your strength. It would have been well appreciated at the time of Jesus that this commandment (which appears in Chapter 6 of the Book of Deuteronomy) was the heart of the Law. Practicing Jews, in fact, would have repeated these verses at least three times a day.

            The commandment from Deuteronomy asks that a person love God in a way that is authentic; with all of the heart, all of the mind and all of one's strength. This might sound a little over the top, but how could it be any other way? A bride-to-be would not be very happy if her future husband said to her: "I love you with part of my heart, part of my mind, and some of my strength". If love is to be authentic then it has to be total and unqualified.

Jesus makes love of God inseparable from love of neighbour

The scholar of the Law that approached Jesus in this passage was looking for a reiteration of a commandment that he would already have been very familiar with. He was probably not looking for anything else, but Jesus is not content to stop at a simple repetition of the commandment from the Book of Deuteronomy. He goes on to say that the second commandment is similar. By "similar" Jesus does not mean that this second commandment resembles the first in certain respects. He means that this second commandment is inextricably linked to the first; to observe the first commandment is to observe the second. To love God in an authentic way involves loving your neighbour as yourself. The entire Law and the Prophets, Jesus asserts, depend on these two commandments.

Can our relationship with God be right if our relationships with others are wrong?

Here Jesus unifies love of God and love of neighbour into a single concept. And, when we think about it, is it possible to love God without loving your neighbour? The first letter of St John states that whoever claims to love the God they cannot see, whilst not loving the brother they can see, is a liar. Can we really have an authentic relationship with God if our relationships with our neighbour are not of the loving kind? Sometimes we try to put a division between our relationship with God and our relations with others. In the sacristy we behave like Christians, but in the outside world we live according to different principles. But Christianity cannot be something that we do in private, when we are on our own. If we really loved God, then we would love him all the time, and this involves loving him in and through our relationships with others. Our love for God must permeate everything we do in life. If someone told us that they had difficulties loving their neighbour but no problem in loving God, then we would be suspicious. The two things are inseparable. We are all children of the same father and if we don't get on with our brothers and sisters, then there is a serious problem in our relationship with God. The life of the human being is not divided up into different compartments. It is not possible that a person can have a perfectly faithful and loyal relationship with God, whilst behaving dishonourably towards the people around him. He who is faithful in small things shall be faithful also in greater things. If a person is truly faithful to God then he will be truly faithful to his neighbour. And the opposite is also true: if one's heart is truly open to his neighbour, then his heart will also be open to God.

            We often think we can place God and neighbour into different compartments of our lives but there must be fundamental unity in our attitude towards both. The horizontal and vertical dimensions of our lives cannot be separated. To love our neighbour as ourselves is to love God with all of our strength. And to love God with all our heart, mind and strength is, automatically, without any doubt, to enter into a relationship of love with our neighbour.

A right relationship with myself depends on right relations with God and neighbour

The business of loving our neighbours as ourselves must not be interpreted according to "new age" principles. We should not follow the line of thinking that is favoured by many psychological approaches to humanity and its ills. Often we hear it said that in order to be able to love others, we must first learn to love ourselves. But this is the wrong approach. It is a complicated business to learn to love oneself in a healthy way, and it could take a lifetime to learn how to do it properly. Are we to focus on ourselves for all of our lives before turning to the business of loving others?

            In reality, we are called to love our neighbour as ourselves. Through my relationships with others, I can set right the relationship that I have with myself. Forgive and you shall be forgiven; give and you shall receive; be merciful and you will find mercy. The point is that my relationship with myself depends on my relationship with others and with God. My personal identity is not something that is defined in purely private or personal terms. I cannot discover who I am by looking inwardly, but only by developing my relationship with the God who created me. Our nature is a relational one and it comes to fruition through love of God and neighbour.

A milestone in humanity's understanding of itself and its relationship with God

Jesus knows man through and through, and this passage from the Gospel represents a milestone in the history of humanity's understanding of itself. It provides the key by which we can understand our own nature. Believers and non-believers alike have been inspired by these words from Jesus. Our hearts are made for love, and this fact must dictate all of our doings and all of our relationships with others.

            The doctor of the Law wished to know which of the commandments was the greatest. Jesus responds by telling us that the most important thing that we must do in life is to exercise our hearts in the art of how to love. The most essential aspect of our existence is love for God and neighbour. Everything else is secondary. Speaking personally, I don't believe that this is always my priority in life. And I don't believe that I often meet people who genuinely have this priority.