The Greatest Commandment and the Shape of Love

 Exodus 22:21-27 ‘If you mistreat any widow or fatherless child, my wrath will burn against you.’

1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10 ‘You turned away from idols to serve God and to wait for his Son.’

Matthew 22:34-40 ‘You shall love the Lord your God and your neighbour as yourself.’

 

 

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‘Thomas’ said my grandmother to my cousin, ‘I love you, but sometimes I really don’t like you.’

Now, you need some context to this outburst.

My cousin Thomas had just kicked our grandmother on the shin, and she was clearly in some pain.

To be frank she could have been a lot more trenchant in what she said to him.

But instead, she said the line that became a family saying, ‘Thomas ‘I love you, but sometimes I really don’t like you.’

My grandmother wouldn’t have realised that she was echoing St Thomas Aquinas’ understanding of what love is, which is not an emotional or sentimental reaction or feeling to someone or something, but an act of human will.

So, for St Thomas, to love is to will the good of another.

We do that after the example and teaching of Christ, not because of what we can get from them or how they make us feel, but simply that we will their good, and in willing their good we act accordingly.

My grandmother continued to will the good of my cousin Thomas, even though her emotional response to him, in that moment, was one of dislike, pain and, no doubt, some anger.

The emotion-based word is ‘like’, not ‘love’.

I don’t like you, at the moment, but I can still will your good: I can say I love you, because what I will for you is the good.

That’s what makes it possible to love our enemies.

We need to will their good, even if we loathe what they do and even who they are.

And in willing their good we begin to find that we cannot hate them anymore.

This command to love our neighbour has a social impact amongst those with whom we share our lives.

That's why the Law repeatedly commands protection of the widow, the orphan and the stranger.

Love is never merely a feeling; it is expressed in concrete care for the vulnerable.

When it comes to loving God there is a different dynamic.

You can’t will God’s good, because God is love.

So what does love of God look like?

Again, Thomas Aquinas can help us here.

To love God perfectly does not mean thinking about him every moment of every day.

Rather, it means giving ourselves completely to God, trusting his word, following his ways, and allowing his love to shape all that we do.

Even as we go about ordinary life, our whole lives can be offered to him.

Such love calls us to put God first above everything else, making him the true centre of our faith, obedience and joy, from which all our actions flow.

And this life is lived in response to God’s love for us.

Everything depends on this, and our response to God’s love.

Everything of the scriptures, the Law and the Prophets, depends, says Jesus, on this love, love for God and love for neighbour.

The Greek text of this verse uses the word κρέμαται (krematai) which means ‘to hang’ or suspend’: so love is the hook on which all the promises of God are suspended.

Without that hook, we lose our grasp of God's promises and our faith, hope and love plummets.

Jesus hangs on the cross: there is love at its deepest.

That is the measure of love, love until the end, love that is steadfast, love that is sacrificial.

Just being told in a word that we’re loved is never enough, yes, we want to hear we’re loved, but we want to see love, feel love, taste love: to know that we are precious, to know even that we are liked: so love is made visible in the Word made Flesh.

The way of the cross is the way of love: love of God and love of neighbour.

Still, we human beings misuse and misdirect love.

In the Gospel today the Pharisees and Sadducees were not seeking edification from him but to test him.

In fact, to say ‘test’ him understates the power of the word, which in Greek is πειράζων (peirazon) meaning ‘tempt’: it’s the word used of Satan in the wilderness, the tempter.

Human love, or what we call love, all too often becomes entangled in tests and temptations.

A good guide to what love looks like is found in 1 Corinthians 13: there’s some good reading on a stormy afternoon like today, and ask: does my love measure up to that? How can I redirect my affection and desires so that they are truly loving?

And on your knees hold before you the picture of Jesus Christ: Jesus Christ who looked upon a sinner and ‘loved him’; who, out of love, washed the feet of disciples; whose heart of love was pierced as he opened his arms on the Cross; who has commanded us to love one another.

There’s the challenge: who is the person whose good you need to will this week - even if you still don’t like them much – and what will that look like practically?

Love God with every fibre of your being; love your neighbour as you yourself are loved: it’s all there, rising above human fickleness.

Our beginning and our end is love: God’s love that brought the creation to be; love that sustains; love that redeems; love that fulfils all things.

God’s love is pure, holy and life-giving, offered without conditions and not subject to change or partiality.

It is the vision into which we are led, as St Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, prays on his knees before the Father:

¹⁷ [May] Christ… dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3.17-19)