The two greatest commandments

From the Gospel of St. Matthew, we get to know from Christ the two greatest commandments.  “One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Mt 22:35-40)

We might think that these are two separate and independent commandments or that there are two separate virtues of charity, one is for the love of God and the other for the love of our neighbor.  But there is only one virtue of charity because we ought to love God in Himself as our creator, whom we owe everything and we love our neighbor as a reflection of God, who told us that “what you do to the least of your brethren, you do to me.”  (Mt 25:34) The motive for loving our neighbor is the same as loving God.  By the virtue of charity, we love God directly in Himself and indirectly in our neighbor.  That’s why St. John teaches us in his first letter, “If anyone says I love God and hates his brother is a liar.  For whoever does not love his brother as seen cannot love God whom he does not see.”  (1 Jn 4:20)

We therefore have to love everyone (all persons) and everything (both created and man-made things) because of our love for God who created all these.  Since both men and things belong to God then we love them because they come from God.  In other words, our love for spouse, parents, relatives and friends should be because of our love for God.  Or our love for God should be the foundation for all our other loves on earth.  This is for our benefit because if we just love spouse, children, friends and relatives for their sake and not for the sake of God we will be miserable if these same people might one day be taken away from us (because death is unavoidable and unpredictable) or if these loved ones one day betray us or hurt us (because no one is perfect).  Can you imagine putting all your happiness in one person such as a spouse or boyfriend or girlfriend and one day they break up with you and you feel your entire world has collapsed?  No wonder there are people who kill themselves for a relationship.  But not so with God who will never betray us or abandon us, and thus it’s safe to put our entire happiness in him.  As the saying goes, “In God you may put your eggs in one basket” and need not be afraid.  “Do not be afraid” (Mt 28:10) is a favorite saying of Christ in Scripture.  The entire world may hate you, abandon you, break up with you, persecute you and you can bear it because your love is not for this world but on God.  And that’s how the Christian martyrs triumphed.

We are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, which means we not only love them when they are good to us but also when they show some weakness and failures.  For that is how we love ourselves.  We don’t hate ourselves for having failed, but we give ourselves a chance to mend our ways.  The same thing should be done to our neighbor, whom we should love as ourselves.  This is the kind of love that makes us forgive our neighbor when they offend us, not only seven times but seventy times seven (meaning no limit), as Christ has said (Mt 18:22).  If we only love our neighbor because he or she is kind to us, or renders us some service or enjoy their company, then our love is only human and not the charity of Christ.  That’s why Christ said, “If you only love those who love you, what recompense do you have?  Do not the tax collectors do the same…”  (Mt 5:46) This is the kind of love that derives from the principle of “hate the sin but not the sinner”, which is how parents love their children, by being patient with their children’s defects and always trying to correct them.  That’s how God loves us too, giving us an entire lifetime to mend our ways and come back to him.  And this is the kind of love that makes us do the hard thing of loving our enemies.  “Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you and pray for those who persecute you…”  (Mt 5:44) The theological virtue of charity demands therefore no less than a heroic kind of love, which is loving everyone, even those who don’t love us in return, for that is how God loves us.