Homilies

30th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT

SOME YEARS AGO, a priest-friend had applied for a tourist visa at the embassy of the United States in Manila. At that time, there were lay applicants who dressed themselves as priests and nuns in order to get easily a visa. But this modus operandi reached the visa officers. So, in order to check whether priest-applicants are true priests, the visa officers prepared religious questions. When it was the turn of my priest-friend to be interviewed, he was asked by the visa officer, "What are the 10 commandments?” My friend was certain that, although he learned these commandments, he could not mention them all before the visa officer. So, if he can only mention eight of the ten commandments, certainly he would be denied a visa. So, he thought of something else. He told the visa officer, “You know what, the ten commandments are now reduced into two, namely, love of God and love of neighbor”. With that smart answer, he was given a tourist visa.

The gospel today is about the commandment of love. Love, as a popular song says, is a many - splendored thing.  And this is where love begins to be a misunderstood. Love, as people understand it now, is reduced to  something that is romantic and emotional. But we cannot blame them because they are misled by the mass media. Love is presented as a feeling, a romantic feeling, or even a fleeting infatuation.

But religious love is different. Let us try to reflect on love that is taught to us by Jesus through the gospel that we have just heard:

First, Jesus teaches us that love is a commandment.  And this is where love is supposed to be understood. Love has nothing to do with feelings. It is imperative to love and all Christians are called to love.  Love as a commandment was first fulfilled by Jesus himself, by hanging on the cross. On the cross Jesus showed perfect obedience to the Father’s will.  On the cross Jesus showed his unconditional love for humanity. He offered his life for all, friends and foes, without exception. Jesus gave a new commandment of love, “Love one another as I have loved you”. He enjoins us to emulate His way of loving. 

Second, Jesus teaches us loving God is the greatest of the commandments. It demands a total and comprehensive commitment to God.  When Jesus said that we should love God with all our soul, heart, and mind, it means that we love God with all our being. Often, we humans just pay a lip service to God. We simply say that we love God, but this is not translated into our actions. If all Christians and Catholics are lovers of God, then there is no room to compromise Sunday masses with other activities. The Sunday obligation would remain our top priority.

Third, Jesus teaches us that the second greatest commandment is to “love your neighbor as yourself”.  Well, Jesus must be aware that, after God, the next one that we love is ourselves.  I am a lover of myself and we are lovers of ourselves. But loving ourselves is not the second greatest commandment. Rather, it is loving our neighbors. But Jesus instructs us that the way how we love our neighbors should be exactly the same as we love ourselves.

For the present Holy Father, the love of God and the love of neighbor are two sides of the same coin. A person who truly loves God cannot afford to hate his neighbor. The love of neighbor is a reflection of love of God. This is a reminder for us that we must be true witnesses to this commandment of love. There are people who are devout mass-goers and, in that sense, they can be lovers of God, but when they get home they have several enemies. So, their love of God is never reflected in the way they relate to others. These people should try to correct that. There is no room for splitting this love: that on the one hand, we can love God, and on the other, we can hate our neighbors. Rather, there has to be correspondence between our love of God and our love of neighbor.

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