by Geoff George Paxton

Created on: April 19, 2010

Why Jesus said the Greatest Commandment is to love God.

Actually, he said more: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)

The ‘summary of the Law’, of the ten commandments, is encapsulated in these few words of Jesus, quoting Moses from Deuteronomy 6:5.

When I know I fail, but I do try to love God with all / 100% of my heart and soul and mind, the second commandment becomes easier. This is because if I can give myself over completely to loving God, then I see my neighbour through his eyes, and can love him too.

Or perhaps I can love my neighbour because I can see the presence of the Lord in him. St. Francis of Assisi was out on horseback when he saw a beggar ringing a bell and saying, “Unclean! Unclean!” as required because of leprosy. Francis got off his horse, and walked over to the leper. Everything in him was screaming, “Get away! Run!” He saw Jesus in the leper’s eyes, and he walked up and embraced him. Imagine the leper’s horror at that, but also the joy of being accepted by someone, instead of chased away at all times, and rejected. That was the start of a huge ministry of the Franciscan Order to lepers.

Yesterday the gospel set was Jesus meeting two disciples on the way to Emmaus. They were so bedevilled by the problems of the crucifixion and reports that Jesus was alive, that they did not actually look at who he was, or recognise him.

That is what we so often do. Love of God is put to the back of our minds, especially when we have other things to occupy them – especially when these other things involve the love of self. But, when we lift our eyes and see the Lord, great is our rejoicing, because of the reality of our love for him, and his love for us, which is so much greater than anything we can ever imagine.

There was a priest in France, the Cur de Ars, who saw a peasant sitting for hours in his church. He asked him what he was doing there. The man replied, “I sit and look at God, and he looks at me.” That, a description of a contemplative relationship, is possible for every Christian, when we bask in God’s love, and our reciprocal love for him. Alleluia.

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