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Jesus is asked in today’s Gospel, which is the greatest of all the commandments?
To which he responds, “Love of God.” And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor.”
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In Jesus’ time, there were two major schools of thought.
Some Jews wanted to expand the Law as much as possible. They were meticulous and exceptionally detailed; so much so that they created 613 extra rules to follow!
Others treated the Law like an accordion. They wanted to condense it as much as possible, down to its very essence.
It’s this approach that Jesus takes.
Collapsing the Law, he says the entirety of it – and by extension Christianity – can be summarized in a single word: love.
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But what exactly is love?
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Love’s a bit like humility; it’s hard to define. But you know it when you see it. You know it when you feel it. And you know it when you don’t.
Throughout the centuries, poets like Dante have tried to define it with varying degrees of success. For example, he once wrote, “Love is what moves the sun and the other stars.”
Nice, but a bit too abstract to me.
Shakespeare, on the other hand, got it right.
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In one of the most famous scenes from Romeo and Juliet, a young Juliet gazes down upon Romeo from her balcony and says to him:
“Romeo, the more I give to you, the more I seem to have.”
That’s the very essence of love; the more we give, the more we have.
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Married couples and parents know this well. Think of how delighted you are when you see your children succeed.
Or even the excitement teachers experience when they see their students first learning to read.
Or the sense of meaning we find when volunteering to help the most vulnerable among us, especially in a time like this.
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If Juliet is right, the more we give to anyone, the happier we become.
This is why, Jesus says, love fulfills the Law; it’s the force that moves the sun and the other stars.
During this extended time of self-isolation and social distancing because of the Coronavirus, what an important reminder to us all:
…reach out to others online, pray for the world, thank those who work to keep our grocery shelves stocked, and those who care for the sick.
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It’s a mysterious truth, but one Jesus knew perfectly well, the more we give to one another, the more we seem to have.