Deuteronomy 6:2-6; Hebrews 7:23-28: Psalm 17; Mark 12:28-34
Theme of the Readings
Today’s first reading introduces us to the beginning of the great Shemá ("Hear, o Israel"), the prayer Jews recite three times a day. This prayer contains the most basic tenets of Judaism: belief in one God (v. 4) and obedience to him in love (v. 5). For the Jewish mind, "hear" brings with it the sense of “obey!” Finally, it reminds them of the covenant God made with them (vv. 10-12). In the Old Testament, love for God and for neighbor were separate entities. Christ, however, unites them. For the love active in Christians is not simply human love, but theological charity which has two subjects, the human and the divine.
Doctrinal Message
In the Old Testament, loving obedience as demanded of the sons of Israel and the love expected of them was not universal. It stopped with their enemies. Certainly, Leviticus stipulates love of neighbor (see 19:18) but as has been made clear, it was not always clear who one’s neighbor was (“Who is my neighbor?” Luke 10:29). Christ’s appearance brings a new reality to the fore. The love God expects of us for himself and for others is the same love. Such love is the key and the summit of the New Law. According to the New Law, love for God implies unyielding love for neighbor, and is, indeed, the proof of love’s authenticity, “since a man who does not love the brother he can see he cannot love God, whom he cannot see” (1 John 4:20).
Charity in Christian life becomes the content and the realization of every moral demand (Galatians 4:14; Romans 13:8 ff.; Colossians 3:14). It is the fullness of the Law and God’s commandments (John 15:12; 1 John 5) as well as the multifaceted proof of authentic faith, for “faith without works is a dead faith” (James 2:16), and “what matters is faith that makes its power felt through love” (Galatians 5:6). It couldn’t be clearer. True faith in God results in a flourishing of charity towards him and, subsequently, to everyone else.
Christian love is not philanthropy or “being nice.” It is a theological reality which has two subjects: God who dwells in the person in a state of grace, and man working together in one enterprise. Its model is God, made visible in Jesus Christ. Imitation of Christ’s love is our universal vocation and path to holiness. His love was universal (see Matthew 5:44; Ephesians 5:1ff.; 1 John 4:11 ff.), but it is above all a theological reality in its source: God’s indwelling in our souls, which makes it possible for God to love through us. Only in God’s grace, only in communion of life with God can we realistically expect to fulfill his commandments (not suggestions, by the way) “Be merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36), “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 13: 34).
One might ask if love can be “commanded.” It is a valid question answered by our Holy Father: “Love can be ‘commanded’ because it has first been given” (Deus Caritas Est, 14). The link between love for God and love for neighbor is central, therefore, to our following Christ. Just as this concept might be difficult to grasp, so it is just as difficult to put it into practice. Every epoch of Church history has shown us how we run the risk of partially veiling one love as if it were in favor of the other love. We often hear the call to “brotherly love” and sometimes the call of unyielding love – personal love – for God is understood as being included simply in the act of “brotherly love.” But if conscious love for God is not foremost, then the love for our brothers ceases to be divine. And we are capable of little more than well meaning philanthropy.
Divine love unites us to God and makes us abide in him as he abides in us (see 1 John 4:16). It is the created participation in the infinite love with which God loves himself: the love which the Father gives his Son, the love which the Son returns to him, and by which each loves the other in the Holy Spirit. Divine love is our introduction into a Trinitarian existence, inserting us into God’s movement of love within the bosom of the Blessed Trinity. Having been inducted into active participation in Trinitarian life, we are enabled to share in the infinite love of the divine Persons. Friendship with God is not casual but all consuming. Charity towards neighbor is fruit of this divine dynamism within us.
Pastoral Applications
God’s invitation to intimacy demands reciprocal love. He has gone before us and loved us first, infusing his own life into us and thus enabling us to love infinitely. Correspondence with this grace requires purity of heart, mind and body. This purity is not limited to the area of Christian chastity – to which we are all called – but an even more subtle purity of intention. Thomas Aquinas says, “God is the motive for loving one’s neighbor, which proves that the act by which we love God is the same as that by which we love our neighbor,” (S. Th. II-II, q. 25, a. 1). In other words, love purified by grace precludes using people or self-seeking in human relations. Far from seeing others as objects we see them as objects of God’s infinite love who merit nothing less from us. In spite of his faults, in spite of the annoyance and difficulties he may cause us, our vocation calls us to look beyond all that and see the big picture: God in my neighbor.
It’s a good idea to ask ourselves why we do not love the people we should love. But perhaps even more telling is the question of why we love the people we profess to love. If my love for somebody is based on how he treats me, on what he thinks of me, on what he does for me, or whatever human qualities he might have that I especially appreciate, then we can be sure that this is not divine love, but merely human love. “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:46-48). Again St. Thomas says “Love of neighbor is not meritorious if the neighbor is not loved because of God” (S. Th. II-II, q. 27, a.8).
It’s easy to deceive ourselves, thinking we have great charity because we are generous to those we naturally love. If we really want our love to be divine, we have to transcend the natural and contemplate our neighbor from the perspective of God’s love, thus loving him in relation to God and because of God. Only in this way will our love be authentically theological charity, the same act with which we love God.