No one who hears this Gospel today would take offense at its message. At the heart of  faith is love, a principle that holds true for Judaism, Islam, and Christianity alike. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself” is the essence of our faith. What scandalizes people the most is witnessing those who profess faith acting without love – resorting instead to hate, power, envy, exploitation, and self-profit.

The personal charge that comes through loud and clear for every sincere Christian from today’s Gospel is that the living foundation of our Christianity is love of God and love of neighbor. All other commandments are expansions of these two and guide us on how to put them into daily practice. For example, why am I forbidden to murder my neighbor? Simply because he belongs to God; it was God who gave him his life, and God has commanded me to love and respect him. Taking his life interferes with God’s rights and disobeys His will. Similarly, the prohibitions against idolatry, insulting God’s name, and not keeping the Sabbath holy are ways of showing how we should love God.

One might wonder: how can I love God? He is infinitely perfect and needs nothing from me, so what can I possibly do for Him? Loving my neighbor is easier to understand, as a neighbor may need help, advice, encouragement, and consolation. I can demonstrate my love by providing these to my neighbor, but God has no such needs.

While the infinite God has no needs that we can fulfill, He has claims on our service, respect, and worship – claims so fundamental and profound that we must be ready to suffer persecution and even death rather than deny or dishonor Him. It is God who gave us existence and every gift we have. Through the incarnation of His own divine Son, God made us adopted children and heirs to heaven. Everything we are, have, and hope to be, we owe to God’s generosity. Therefore, showing God reverence and respect are one way in which we can express our love for Him.

Observing God’s commandments, offering daily prayers of thanksgiving, praise, and petition, and attending Mass and other liturgical functions are other ways God has given us to show our love, acknowledge our total dependence on Him, and express our gratitude for all He has done and continues to do for us. While God does not need these signs of our love, reverence, and respect, we need them absolutely. They are the means He has provided for us to fulfill His purpose in creating us – to share in His eternal glory. Loving God is not an obligation imposed by a demanding superior being, but a privilege granted to us.

Love challenges us to reflect more deeply on our motivations, our conversation, our deliberations. Sometimes love of God is calling us to a particular situation or person; to a one-on-one encounter to bring a word of hope, a word of peace, a word of reconciliation. We can see that the other, my friend, my neighbor, my co-worker needs proof of God’s love. Sometimes love is calling us to go out into the world to speak out boldly for justice and support of the marginalized, refugees, and the plight of the ongoing displaced peoples of the world.  

Loving our neighbor – and in the Christian code this means all people no matter what may be their color, race or religion – is, according to our divine Lord, an effective way of proving to God that we love him. Because of our common humanity we feel the call  to help our fellowmen, our neighbors. The Christian message sanctifies this natural inclination, by commanding us to help our neighbor only because he is God’s child. We are all fellow children of God, members of the one family. Our heavenly Father loves each one of us and wants our salvation. If we love our common Father, we will do all we can to help his other children also to attain salvation.

For Christians the best way to love is to get to know God, who is Love itself.  True love for God involves a deep intimacy and closeness. As we grow in our love for God, we naturally become more intimate with Him, and this intimacy, in turn, deepens our love. This closeness requires knowledge, as understanding is a natural outcome of intimacy. Love does not remain vague; it becomes more specific and informed as it grows. And the best way to know God is to get to know love as it was made visible in Jesus Christ who loved humanity to the end.

Love sits before us not as a judge but as a beacon, a light, a fire burning before us. God is love. And God beckons us further into the light and warmth that is God. God’s love never dims. God’s offer of love is perpetual. It is always to be trusted, to be relied upon, and it is such that we can always be sure of it.  God’s love precedes our love and is the very impetus and grounds on which we too can love.