Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?

 

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Friday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB

In our gospel for today, we hear the very familiar “golden rule” from the Lord: Love of God with your whole heart, soul and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:37)

It doesn’t get any more basic than that: we, who call ourselves Christian, are called to love. To love God and to love neighbor. It’s not always an easy rule to follow, but if we are to be followers of Jesus Christ, follow it we must.

The Lord concludes in today’s gospel, “The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Matthew 23:40) How much clearer can we get?

Central in our faith in Jesus Christ, we need to give God all glory, honor and love. We are called to have God as the center of who we are. We are to make time during our days to pray and give thanks to the Lord God to show that we indeed love Him as our Creator. We show Him this by our daily time in prayer. From the time we wake in the morning to the time we end our day; we are to remember that our time here in this life is a precious gift from God. We should make time every day to pray and give thanksgiving to God for this gift of life. Even if it at short periods of time throughout the day, we should take time to read scripture and to give thanks and glory to God. Even during the busiest times of day, by just taking a moment to say, “Thank you, Lord, for being with me throughout this day” we are showing God the love that we have for him.

The second part of this golden rule is the hardest: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:39) First, we need to have a healthy love for ourselves. We can’t truly love others if we don’t have that healthy love of ourselves.

Further, it’s not always easy to love those around us as God expects us to. We need to remember that all people are made in the image of God and are loved by God. We, in turn, are to love them as we love ourselves. That’s not always easy, and there may be times when we need to distance ourselves from these people that we find it hard to get along with. It’s okay to keep our distance from them to protect our own spiritual & emotional wellbeing, but we are called to love them and to pray for them and their welfare.

As we go through our days, let us always try to love God with our whole minds, heart and soul, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. And when we fall short of these goals, let us turn back to God to seek forgiveness for the times we fall short.