Focus: Love is the essence of life and love alone can give meaning and beauty to life. A life devoid of love will be like a body without life
1. We are living in a world where there is total disarray and imbalance between two polarities: egoism is increasing but altruism is decreasing; slavery to religion is increasing but freedom of true religious spirit is decreasing; allegiance to tradition is increasing but adherence to true devotion is decreasing; spiritualities are increasing but true spirituality is decreasing. Prayers are increasing but the true spirit of prayer is decreasing
2. We find many who talk big and great things but in reality, live and do the opposite. They have more competence but less benevolence; more education but less dedication; more qualification but less edification; more specialization but less assimilation; more ability but less nobility; more capacity but less sagacity; more power but less fervor; more authority but less charity; more seniority but less sincerity.
3. Why such a dichotomous life? The sole reason is the decline of love. The culture of love is fast diminishing. Instead, a culture of hatred and resentment, and all its corollaries like negativity and retaliation, aggression and violence, hurt and destruction are rampant.
4. What then is the remedy and antidote? Obviously, only a revival and restoration of the culture of love is the only healing balm. This is what Jesus reminds us today in the gospel. A certain scribe poses a question to Jesus, “Which is the greatest commandment of all?” Jesus’ answer is Love. It is a twofold love: love for God and love for the other. It is not two loves, but one love that has two aspects or dimensions objects. They are mutually inclusive and complementary in the sense one certainly leads to and enhances the other.
5. Both Love for God and love for the other not only complement each other but complete each other. This means that one cannot be true and perfect without the other. Jesus also qualifies both these loves. Love for God is not what we mostly see, one that is confined to mere rituals and religious activities, one which is equated with offerings and some traditions. Such a love for God is only shallow and superfluous because it does not sink deep and does not touch the depths.
6. Instead, a true love for God is something profound, a passionate craving for God, an intimate relationship with Him, a total surrender to Him of whole mind, heart, and soul. It is without measure and reserve. Such a love for God affects the whole person and whole life. God reigns supreme in everything and everywhere. God is the highest priority and He holds the foremost primacy in life. To love and please Him alone becomes the supreme norm and rule of life.
7. The beauty of Jesus’ teaching is to join together the love of God and the love of the other as one Love with two faces. In fact, both are one and the same love. In both, it is the full self that loves. The self loves fully both God and the other. The whole self is the true self, the self in its perfection. One who partially loves is not loving with the whole and perfect love. Thus, a devotion that does not experience intimacy and surrender to God’s will is not true love. And a love for God that does not manifest itself in love for the other is also not credible.
8. Only a true self loves with true love. Only a full self loves with full love. One who loves the other truly and fully cannot be selfish, partial, biased, wicked, or harmful. In fact, true and pure self-love sees one’s own self in the other. Thereby it loves itself in the other. That is why, true self-love cannot think of doing wrong or harm to the other, because it will be self-harming and self-destructive.
Direction: It is high time that we do an honest self-check about our love for God and love for the other. Often our love for God is replaced by love for worldly gods, and love for the other is replaced by love for ego.
{REFLECTION ON LOVE COMMANDMENT IN REF. TO MATTHEW 22. 34-40 (25 October 2020)}
Focus: In a world that is both love-barren and love-hungry, which abuses love so much and also needs the same so much, true love alone is the greatest remedy
1. Love is the greatest commandment:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these”
2. Love is the summary and quintessence of all discipleship. It is the supreme command of the Lord to every disciple, a Law which all must obey and follow, an indispensable norm which must guide the whole life of a disciple.
3. Jesus puts together the love of God and love of neighbor as one single commandment. In fact, they are not two separate commandments that can subsist, one without the other. Rather they are two inseparable aspects of one and the same Law of love and are mutually inclusive.
4. Love of God and love of neighbor support and complete each other, so much so that one without the other, is incomplete and deficient. They are also mutually authenticating, in the sense, that one reveals and bears witness to the other. One cannot claim to love God totally but refuse or fail to love the other. In the same way, one cannot love the other wholeheartedly but has no love for God:
5. “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 Jn 4. 12); “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (1 Jn 4. 16); “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, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister” (1 Jn 4. 20-21).
6. Now, How to love God? In what measures?
The love that is demanded of a disciple is Total and Entire. It is with the totality of one’s faculties, capacities, intentionality, and will. It is with the whole being, the entire person. There are no portions, no fractions, no proportions, no concessions, no conditions, no percentages, no ratios. The command to love is imperative and not facultative. Jesus is never convinced or satisfied with half-measures.
7. True it is, one cannot expect perfection soon, as discipleship is a journey of progression and maturation on the road of perfection. But this does not mean that a disciple can continue with compromising steps. Jesus is very clear about the uncompromising nature of discipleship. “One is either for him or against him”. There is no neutral stand. “You cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and wealth”.
8. To follow Jesus is a fundamental option. In authentic discipleship, there is no room for compromises or convenient adjustments. In true and full love for God, there is authenticity, intensity, depth, and dedication.
Discipleship is loving God in full measure. It is to love God without measure and without reserve.
9. Then, How to love the neighbor? In what manner?
With regard to loving the neighbor, the manner in which one must love is indicated. “Love your neighbor as you love yourself”. Every one loves one’s own self. Here we need not enter into discussion about self, about its quality whether positive or negative, about Jesus’ injunction to deny self, etc. What matters in the context is the fact that there is self-love in everyone. The only difference between a true disciple and not-a disciple is, the disciple sublimates his self-love to God’s love which constantly controls and regulates his self-love so that the end result is positive and productive.
10. The reference to the “Golden Rule” (Lk 6. 31) prescribed by Jesus can be of help in this context: “Do unto others what you want them to do to you”. Certainly, everyone wants to be understood, accepted, respected, loved, comforted, appreciated, encouraged, and supported. If so, to love the other as one loves one’s own self demands that we should also understand, accept and respect others.
Direction: Let love be genuine and deep. Let love be our passion and devotion. Let it be our norm and test. Because then, the society can be healed.
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