LOVE, THE MEASURE.

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October 29, 2023.
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time – A.

Readings: Ex 22:20-26; Ps 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51; 1 Thes1:5c-10; Mt 22:34-40.

"You shall love the Lord, your God… You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
A Yiddish proverb says: “Love your neighbor, even if he plays the trombone.” And a Sicilian proverb adds: “Who loves God with all his heart, lives happy and dies happy.”
We can never say enough about love, for love is all that matters in life. Either in our relationship with God or in our relationship with each other, love is the reason, love is the mobile, and love is the measure. Nothing good can be done without love. And besides, all that has been done was because of love. One just needs to look back at the creation, the mystery of salvation, and redemption, and ask, if there is anything in all these which is not the fruit of love. Even when we sin, God forgives us because of his love. He is the God of love and mercy. Therefore, in response to so great a love, we should love God beyond and above all things. The primacy of God should be our act of love to him.
The Catechism states: "In response to the question about the first of the commandments, Jesus says: "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." The apostle St. Paul reminds us of this: "He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. The commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,' and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." CCC 2196
Today’s liturgy is a call to love. It is all about the love we owe to God, and the love we also owe to our neighbor. We could hear St. Paul saying to the Romans in a warning tune: “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.” Rom 13:8. Love of God and love of the neighbor are like the two legs for a balanced human and spiritual life. First and foremost, there is the centrality of love for God. We cannot live without God and even more, we cannot live without loving him beyond everything; with all that we are body and soul, and with all that we have, material as well as spiritual possessions. Nevertheless, our love for God will sound like a mere utopia or simple words if we do not concretize it in the love of our neighbor. Our love for our neighbor is, thus, the substantial and tangible sign of the love for God that we express in faith and obedience.
Hence, the answer of Jesus to the scholar who tested him asking: “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” The Lord just led him back to the first article of the Torah, the 'Shemah Israel': “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the quintessential Jewish prayer. It is also a proclamation of faith, a law, and a daily pledge of allegiance to the one true God. The ‘Shema Israel’ sets the unicity of God and the primacy of love.
The Lord Jesus, then, will go beyond, to point out to the scholar the concrete expression of the love for God: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself..." God is the measure of love, but the neighbor is the means of the true love. One can show how much he loves God only through how he relates to his fellows, and especially to the most in need. Love cannot and must not remain only abstract or a mere affirmation of religiosity. It is good to be a good churchgoer. It is great and highly advisable to belong to all the groups and associations in your parish. This shows how you love God. But you will prove your love and make it bear fruit only through the way you relate to others and how you love them. "You shall love the Lord, your God… You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” He is not calling us for an unrealistic or unrealizable sacrifice. Love your neighbor as yourself. We should not try to love our neighbor more than ourselves; no one can do so. But we should also not dare to love the neighbor less than we love ourselves, this will lead to selfishness. Give your neighbor what good you have in store just as if you were giving it to your own self.
God, in today’s liturgy, calls us for solidarity and empathy. It is a call for a sense of responsibility and compassion toward each other. Put to needs of the neighbor first as if it were your own.
Unfortunately, we live in a world and societies where individualism, indifference, and the self have become the measure of everything, even of love. As we said, it is not a bad thing to love oneself. But if your love for yourself becomes a hindrance to the love you owe to God and others, you are an idolater. Many people care no more for the rights of others. Not only so, we abuse the poor, the widow, the orphan, the marginalized. We deprive them of their necessities. The Lord warns us in the first reading, "If you wrong the widow and the orphan, my wrath will flare up against you."
We are urged, therefore, like Paul praises the Thessalonians, to turn from idols and praise God. And the first idol we should turn away from is the self so that we can love others as we love ourselves and love God.

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