Today’s Gospel brings us to the heart of our Christian faith: love of God and love of neighbour. A scholar of the law asks Jesus, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He knows the Scriptures and belongs to a tradition that identifies 613 commandments in the law. His question concerns what matters most amid these many demands. Jesus answers by bringing everything back to love. All our prayers, our worship, and our daily decisions find their meaning in our relationship with God and with one another. Today, we are invited to examine our lives through a simple question: does my faith help me to love more deeply, more generously, and more faithfully? This is a question for every one of us.
Jesus begins with words rooted in the Shema, the prayer of Israel: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Mt. 22:37; cf. Deut. 6:4–5). To love God in this way means giving him a place in every part of our lives. We bring him our thoughts, our desires, our joys, and our struggles. We turn to him when life is peaceful and when the future is uncertain. Such love grows through prayer, through listening to his word, and through trusting him in the ordinary circumstances of life.
Then Jesus joins this commandment to another: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Mt. 22:39). These two commandments belong together, like two sides of the same coin. Sometimes we imagine that loving God is easier than loving the people around us. In prayer, we can speak beautiful words; at home, we may struggle to speak patiently. We can feel peaceful in church and become irritated with someone immediately afterwards. Our neighbour has opinions, habits, and weaknesses that challenge us. Yet this is precisely where our love becomes real. The person who needs our patience, the relative awaiting our forgiveness, and the lonely neighbour hoping for a visit all invite a response. Through these encounters, the love we profess to God takes visible shape in our daily lives.
Jesus concludes by saying, “The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments” (Mt. 22:40). Love gives direction to everything God asks of us. Keeping the commandments should gradually shape us into people who are honest, merciful, and generous. We can examine our conscience by asking both, “What wrong have I done?” and “What good have I left undone?” Perhaps someone needed encouragement, but we remained silent. Perhaps we noticed another person’s burden, but hurried past. The Gospel invites us to become more attentive to these ordinary opportunities for love. Each day, we can ask God to show us where our presence, our words, or our help might make a difference. In this way, his commandments become a path we walk with him.
Finally, we must remember that God loves us first. His love reaches us before our achievements, and he remains faithful even when we fail. When we receive that love, our hearts can become more generous. We begin to recognise people as gifts entrusted to our care. At this Eucharist, Christ gives himself to us and strengthens us to love as he loves. Let us bring before him one relationship that needs healing and one person who needs our kindness this week. Let us pray: Lord, help me to love you with my whole heart. Teach me to recognise your presence in my neighbour. May my words bring comfort, my actions offer help, and my life become a humble expression of your love.
Fr. Mathew Charthakuzhiyil