Thirty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time: Loving God Loving Neighbor... As Yourself
As people of a society that is complex in all its laws and things that have to be done to apply for college, to be enrolled in employment benefits, to file taxes, etc., we can relate to the people of Jesus’ time. Somehow, the 10 Commandments that Moses first presented on two tablets of stone, had become further nuanced and expanded over time, that by Jesus’ time there were 613 laws that Jews were expected to live by. As life is for us, it could be overwhelming—like when you see that box at the bottom of five pages of small print that says “initial here” or “check this box” if you agree to the above terms. I’ll confess that I don’t have the stamina, nor honestly the interest, to read all the terms, yet I simply agree.
How do we make it simpler? Can we? These were questions Jewish people wrestled with in Jesus’ time. An important Jewish figure who lived about a generation before Jesus, Hillel the Elder (40BC-10AD), was once approached by a man who asked Hillel, ‘give me the full teaching of God, but do it while standing on only one foot’. The point being, that if you have to do it while standing on one foot, you’ll be concise and to the point. Hillel replied, “What is hateful to you, do not to your neighbor: that is the whole Torah, while the rest is commentary thereof; go and learn it” (Babylonian talmud, Shabbath 31a).
It’s a similar question that Jesus is asked: “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus’ response, like Hillel’s, is concise enough that you could likely say it while standing on one foot. And just as Moses originally presented two tablets that summarized the Law, Jesus gives two parts to his response. The first part, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength”, encapsulates the first three Commandments. The second part, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” encapsulates the last seven Commandments.
With this in mind, I believe there are three considerations that I believe would be helpful for us:
First is regarding the fact that there are two parts that are the “first of all the commandments”. It tells us that you cannot actually do one without doing the other. You can’t truly love God if you fail to love your neighbor. When you authentically offer yourself for others—your family members, your co-workers, strangers, people who are hard to love—it extends to be a gesture of loving God. And conversely, you cannot truly love your neighbor if you don’t love God. The more that you come to love God it will magnify how you love the people in your life. Love of God and love of neighbor are inseparable.
Second, is the idea of loving our neighbor as ourselves. Let’s be honest: many of us have difficulty loving ourselves. Statistics of suicide, the proliferation of clinical depression, and so much else all point to an inability to love ourselves. Everyone of us needs to know we are loved. It’s an essential human need, like water and air. But voices within deceive us, telling us that we’re not worthy of anyone’s love or to the extent they do, it’s conditional or won’t always be there. These doubts leave us feeling insecure and unstable, and give way to the lie that we’re not really worthy of love. It all stifles our ability to love ourselves. We must repeatedly and regularly tell ourselves that it’s a lie and rebuke it.
The third consideration is about loving God. You might wonder: What does it mean to love God? I can conceptualize loving a person….But loving God? To love God, Jesus uses four terms: with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Together, Jesus intends to these to refer to the whole person. Rather than compartmentalizing our lives, we love God through all parts of our lives: our home life, our work, our recreation, and all else…in the morning, the evening, in the night…Sunday through Saturday…all that we are. We love God, when we aspire to make Him part of it all.
But even more, it points our Christian understanding of love: to give one’s life over to the one whom we love. So, to the extent that you find a way to make your life more about God, to let Him into your life—it gives way to love.
Based upon these three consideration, which of the following are you needing most to sort through?
Who are the people you find it hard to love? How are you being challenged to regard them and deal with them differently, more lovingly? Realizing that if you do, it will give way to better loving God.
Are you struggling to love yourself? What are the lies that are at work in this? What is the truth you need to struggle to grasp as a way of rebuking the lies?
How are you being called to love God by giving Him more of your life? Realizing that if you do, it will give way to better loving your neighbor.