 In today’s gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus is tested by the Pharisees with the following question, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Once again, Jesus more than passes the test with these words, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as your self’. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
When we look at Jesus’ answer, we see that Jesus has summed up the Ten Commandments into two. The first, being the greatest commandment, acknowledges our relationship with God. While the second one establishes how we are to treat one another.
In Jesus’ first commandment, Jesus tells us that we are to love God with our entire being. This means that our relationship with God must come first in our lives over all other relationships. For most of us this is not always easy. After all, we cannot physically see God. We can only see God’s handiwork both in creation and in the workings of our lives and others. Often times, circumstances in our lives that we look upon as mere coincidences are really God’s divine intervention into our daily routines.
There is a story about a woman reading Psalm 91, while fishing in a boat. Psalm 91 is a psalm that proclaims God’s protection for those who love Him. One of the verses states,
“For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.
While reading these encouraging words, a big fish comes along and knocks the boat so hard that the woman is flung off balance down into the bottom of the boat knocking her head against the side. Straightening herself up, the woman complains to God about His lack of protection. Then God says, “You’re not dead are you?”
Sometimes, we don’t realize how much God protects and cares for us. We see the adversities in our lives through a myopic perspective. We cannot always see the wider picture, which may show God’s angels keeping us from the worse harm that could have happened or God’s mercy intervening in our lives in such a way that we cannot comprehend it. It is these God moments that too often go unnoticed.
What we need to know is that God always has our best interest in mind for us. Even when we cannot see it, God can, because God knows the future of everyone. He is working out His plan of salvation for all peoples to have the opportunity to know Christ. As Christians, we are His witnesses on earth.
I am sure that the woman, who was reading the psalm of protection, would much prefer a momentary headache over death. God obviously had more work on earth for her to do or He would have allowed her to go home to heaven. The scriptures tell us that nothing can separate us from the love of God, not even death. So those of us who remain here on earth have not finished our work for Christ. In return for God’s abundant and overflowing love for us, Jesus tells us that God only asks us to love Him completely.
Now for some that seems like a rather tall order. Yet, when we take into the facts that it is because of God that we even exist and live and breathe, well, perhaps then can we start to understand God’s priority in our lives. Without God we are less than nothing. We are lost souls wandering in darkness; destined for an eternity of spiritual emptiness.
On the other hand, loving God with all of our being is actually a privilege. We, who were created in God’s image, have the joy of a personal relationship with God our Creator through Jesus Christ. This relationship of love between Father and child is what spills out of us overflowing into our relationship with others. This is why Jesus’ commandment to love God comes first and is called the greatest commandment, because God’s love is our wellspring from which all of our love flows. The scripture is clear that God is love.
We humans have not created love. Instead, all love comes from God. The love that we have for God is but a return of God’s love for us back to God. So when we share God’s love with one another even our neighbor, which means not family, then we are spreading the wealth of God’s love with others.
This is why Jesus puts loving our neighbor as ourselves as the second commandment. It is a matter of priority. First we have to know God and His love for us and love God back before we can love anyone else in the godly way that God wants us to love others. Having done Jesus’ first commandment, we are equipped to do Jesus’ second commandment.
In St. Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, he describes the kind of love we are to have for one another. St. Paul writes, “As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed; nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others, though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of Christ but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.”
O’ Henry’s short story ‘The Gift of the Magi’ is a wonderful example of the Christ like love that we are commanded to have for one another. The two main characters, Jim and Della, are a young couple who love each other very much. They are also a very poor couple with nothing to spare to buy Christmas gifts for one another. Unknowingly, each of them sells their prized possession; Jim, his pocket watch and Della her hair in order to purchase gifts for one another. Jim buys a set of lovely combs for Della’s beautiful hair. Della buys Jim a chain for his watch. The gifts they give each other, even though neither can now use them, are considered to be priceless, because of what they each gave up of themselves for one another. It is this unselfish love for one another that is their true gift to each other.
O’ Henry’s couple illustrates for all the love that Christ calls us to have for one another. It is a love that loves unconditionally for Christ’s sake. When we begin to love one another as Christ commands then we will become as the psalmist described “like trees planted by streams of water, bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither”. All the works that we do will flourish, because we will be sharing the love of God with all peoples.
May our love for God grow until it overflows into the hearts of all.
| 
