"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"
This was a relatively straightforward question, a test, perhaps, but not obviously a trap. And the answer given by Jesus did not seem groundbreaking at a glance. It wasn't like the beatitudes with their pairings of "You have heard it said" with "But I say to you". And yet there more to this answer than may first have been apparent.
He said to him,
"You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
Note how he delivers this. Not so much said as reference to a commandment given and recorded as it was spoken as if he himself were delivering it directly to the man. He, the word of God himself, delivered the commandment to the man with all the freshness of the first time it was given, in all of its overwhelming comprehensiveness. There was thus nowhere to hide from the obligation of giving one's whole self to God, not past or future, nor any part of one's inner world. God was speaking directly to the man there and then, requiring of him all that he was and could be.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
It is not altogether immediately obvious precisely how the second commandment is like the first. In fact it seemed to be very much the dissimilitude that often made people stumble, dividing the two and opposing them. We see such reasoning constantly from the Pharisees who sometimes seemed to use love of God precisely as an excuse to avoid love of neighbor.
In our own lives too love of God and love of neighbor seem quite distinct. We take too easy of an answer if we say that they are similar because the love with which we love them is the same love, and that the end toward which we love them, the glory of God, is the same for both. This is a partial answer. It's partiality is revealed when we try to decide between one action, which we perceive to be for our neighbor, and another which we perceive to be for God. Suddenly the Pharisees' contention about the Sabbath doesn't seem quite so malicious and unreasonable as it first appeared.
There can be no satisfactory answer to this likeness between commandments that is merely an explanation of abstract relationship between the two. It can only be found finally in Jesus himself, who is both God and neighbor. It is him whom we love in our liturgies, prayers, and other forms of divine worship. And it is him whom we love when we love the lowest and the least.
And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ (see Matthew 25:40).
Only the centrality of Jesus makes sense of what he said about being the Lord of the Sabbath, which was seemingly putting the needs of creatures above commandments ordered to divine worship. Only the centrality of Jesus made sense of the woman who used costly aromatic oil to anoint his body, rather than selling it and giving the money to the poor.
Why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me (see Mark 14:4-7).
We can see from how deeply the disciples of Jesus internalized this likeness from the fact that they recognized something more than an abstract analogy in the relationship between God and neighbor. They were somehow part of a mystical whole.
If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen (see First John 4:20).
Knowing that these two commandments are united in this way does not necessarily immediately yield practical consequences in discerning how to act. Only by drawing near to Jesus will we acquire the prudence to discern what is best in a given situation, and what response he himself will receive as the most loving one is something we can only learn by trying to grow in love of him. This is why the priority is on the love of God first. Because without that nothing will make sense and everything will seem divided and opposed. We can see this well understood by Mother Teresa who is probably the most famous for her love of neighbor, particularly in this quote attributed to her:
"Unless we believe and see Jesus in the appearance of bread on the altar, we will not be able to see him in the distressing disguise of the poor."
God's love is our source, it is our destination, and it is the way we go to reach that destination. God desires to change hardened hearts to make the merciful and compassionate as he himself is merciful and compassionate. Let us receive this "word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit" so that we too can become a model for others, and so that from us too the word of the Lord may sound forth.
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.
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