The Greatest Commandment

What is love? Have you ever been asked what this four-letter word means? What was your answer? Allow me to describe it with this wonderful story:

In her book, The Whisper Test, Mary Ann Bird shares a critical episode in her life. She was born with a cleft palate. When she started school her classmates let her know that she was different: a little girl with a misshapen lip, crooked nose, lopsided teeth, and garbled speech. If they asked what happened to her lip, she told them she fell and cut it on a piece of glass. For her, it felt more acceptable to say that she’d been injured rather than being born different. Along the way Mary Ann became convinced that no one outside her family could love her. However, when she got to 2nd grade she was assigned to a teacher, Mrs. Leonard, who was happy and sparkly, the kind of instructor all the kids loved. Every year in school the students were required to take hearing test. When the day came for Mary Ann to take hers, she was supposed to stand at a distance, cover one ear, and listen closely for something the teacher would whisper to her so she could repeat it back. Usually the teacher would say something like “The sky is blue,” or “What color are your shoes? but that day Mrs. Leonard spoke seven words that changed a little girl’s life when she whispered, “I wish you were my little girl.” At that moment she knew she was loved just as she was, and her life was changed. Love can do that. When you know that someone loves you just as you are and demonstrates it in their words and actions, it can change, it can transform your life. (Rev. Ken Larson).

As we understand the true essence of love in our Gospel this Sunday, it is also important to know to whom such love is directed to. Is it me loving the person as to who he/she is? Or is it me loving what I can benefit from him or her as I do? Let me point out the two significant aspects of the greatest commandment as Jesus puts it:

First, as the Scripture narrates it, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Luke10:27) Loving God in such a way means putting God above anything else. He must always be first priority in our lists of priorities. As His creatures, we should realize dependence on Him believing that we could not do anything without Him. We should therefore keep the commandments by first acknowledging His Lordship through prayer and worship and exercise the so-called ends of prayer: Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving and Supplication (ACTS). In other words, fulfill our duties to God (vertical dimension) not so in order to please Him as He doesn’t need that, but to express the same love that He gave to us from the very start.

Canadian sociologist Reginald Bibby reports of Canadians, "Eighty-eight percent know their astrological signs, with half of the entire population reading their horoscopes at least once a month, outnumbering Bible readers by two to one." [Reported in Martin E. Marty, Context (1 November 1993).] Wouldn't it be great if 88% of the people were starting their day with the Word of God, not the alignment of the stars?

• Questions we should ask ourselves on a daily basis: Is my love for God all that it should be? Do I pray to Him as I should? Am I in His Word as I should be? Are there people or things that have crept in and taken over first place in my life? Is Jesus somewhere down the line after some person, some thing, or even myself? What about my love for others? Is it all it could be? How loving am I to the members of my family, to my neighbors, to the members of my parish community? The answer to all these questions will help us to measure the degree of our love of God.

Second, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27) Seeing an Almighty God who is loving, merciful and kind, we should also see Him in our neighbors, who are by nature a reflection of the goodness of God. Loving our neighbors entails our unceasing support without any reservations as well as prejudices in terms of color, race, gender, age, wealth or social status. Jesus has loved us unconditionally and as a model we are also asked to follow suit.

Together with this is, of course, the important aspect of conversion or a change of heart which starts through forgiveness of oneself as well as others. Time is so short to hold grudges on our neighbors. True forgiveness begets peace, love and an ongoing love for mankind. When we forgive, we give ourselves in humility in order that peace may prevail and that we become worthy sharers of such peace.

A Sunday school teacher was talking to a class of five- and six-year-olds about the Ten Commandments. "Can you give me a Commandment with only four words?" she asked. "I know," said a little girl: "Keep off the grass." When the class ended, two of the boys began to poke each other. The teacher intervened saying, "Didn't we just finish talking about the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule?" to which one of the little combatants replied, "Yes but he did it unto me first."

Love in the Christian perspective is the “total giving of oneself to another.” By total, we mean, WHOLE, ENTIRE with neither reservations nor conditions … it is ONE! That is why in marriage, the TWO become ONE because they both share in the one love founded on God, who is a communion of THREE Persons, and yet ONE in God-ness. This Sunday, let us make sure that we exercise our duty to love in the way Christ have set as an example. Let us exercise our love in total self-giving. Let us love God and our neighbors. Our neighbors, which could include the “aliens” (first reading: Exodus 20:22-26) among us: the oppressed, the poor, the neglected, the needy, the immigrants as the reading imply. So are you ready to love? Are you ready to give yourself totally to your neighbors? Are you ready to love the person as to who he or she is regardless of any benefits to our advantage?