Love God. Love Your Neighbor. A Timely Message from Jesus.

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Which is the first of all the commandments?

To which Jesus 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 rules to follow in addition to the 10 Commandments!

Others treated the Law like an accordion. They wanted to collapse it down to its very essence.

It’s this approach that Jesus takes. He collapses the Law like an accordion down into 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 love 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.”

The more I give…the more I have. That’s the very essence of love.

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Married couples and parents know this well. Think of how delighted you are when you see your children succeed. You sacrifice so much in order to make their futures brighter.

Or the delight teachers experience when they teach their students how to read.

Or the sense of satisfaction we have when giving the perfect gift.

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If Juliet is right, the more we give to anyone, the happier we become. 

This is why Jesus says that love fulfills the Law; it’s the force that moves the sun and the other stars. It’s the force that keeps families – and society – together.

Now, more than ever, we’re being called to put these commandments into practice: Love God. Love your neighbor. 

The society we’re living in is the outcome of human choices and decisions. But there’s good news in that. 

What humans break, divide, and separate, we can – with God’s help – also heal, unite, and restore. 

Realizing this vision of Christ – where we live in a world of mutual love and respect – begins with a single person.

May that person be you. May that person be me.

The more we give to one another, the happier we become.

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