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In today’s Gospel (Matthew 22:34-40), we heard Jesus declare that “the whole law and the prophets” depend on two great commands from the Lord. Everything concerning our fidelity to God hinges on our ability to love God above all else and to love our neighbor as ourselves. When Jesus was tested by one of the Pharisees, Jesus simply took the 613 commandments found in the Torah (Law) and narrowed them down to these two. The instruction to love God comes from Deuteronomy 6:5, and the instruction to love our neighbor from Leviticus 19:18. Some have described love of God as being the “vertical dimension” of love, and love of neighbor as being the “horizontal dimension.” By combining love of God and love of neighbor into a single commandment, Jesus is putting them on equal footing and making clear that love of God and love of neighbor are two sides of the same coin. They are dependent upon one another and enhance one another.
For Matthew’s community and for us, “loving God and loving our neighbor” is not just a summary of commandments to follow, but an entire way of living that incorporates our relationship with God into everything we do. No longer driven solely by observance of the law, we instead follow Jesus Christ who, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is the very source of the law. Jesus invites us to embrace the very spirit of the law – understanding the “why” and not merely the “how.” In our Second Reading (1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10), Saint Paul invites us to become “imitators of the Lord.” By living faithfully, gratefully, and generously ourselves in imitation of Christ, the ideals of the law become second nature to us and are made present sometimes without our even recognizing them.
