In the gospel text ( Matthew 22:34-40), the question of which amongst the commandments is the greatest was directed to Jesus by the Pharisees.
In response to the Pharisees, “Jesus said, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself….”
This shows that the love of God supersedes every other commandment that exists. It leads us to a very important question, namely, how can we love God with all our heart, soul, and mind?
I shall point out two ways through which we can love God, namely; we can love God by loving oneself and by loving one’s neighbours as ourselves.
As written in the scriptures, “… God created mankind in his own image….” (Gen. 1:27). This means that each of us is a manifestation of God, and so, loving oneself is loving God, which is just half the way to what God wants us to do. The more interesting part is loving our neighbours as ourselves. This is the point at which many of us are lagging behind.
As found in the scriptures, “whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, can not love God, whom they have not seen.” (1 John 4:20). This is why Jesus added this second part to his answer. He says, “…the second (greatest commandment is), you must love your neighbour as yourself…”
We need to do better than the Pharisees, who asked the question and gained the knowledge but will not follow the commandments. We now have the knowledge of what God wants from us. What is left is to put this knowledge into practice, loving our neighbours as ourselves. In this way, we can reduce the hate and pain in our society.
As we celebrate the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary today, who is also an example of perfect love of God and neighbour, we ask for her intercession as we pray for peace in our world and for love to reign. Amen!
Peace be with you
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