Dear friends,

Again a trick question, again an attempt to set a trap for Jesus, to find a reason to accuse and kill him.

Jesus' answer is so simple and clear that even his fiercest adversaries are unable to contradict it. To this day there is no answer more concise or more convincing: Love God completely and your neighbor as yourself. This con­tains everything God commands.

Jesus' answer is so familiar to us, so self-evident after two thousand years of repetition, that we might too quickly pass over the meaning and scope of this double commandment of the love of God and neighbor. For do we truly know what it means to love God with all our heart and our neigh­bor as well? Jesus says that this is everything God expects from us.

In the "song of love" in the First Epistle to the Corin­thians (13:1-13), Paul names several characteristics of love: it is patient, kind, does not boast, does not seek its own advantage, does not let itself be provoked to anger, does not bear a grudge when evil is done, takes pleasure, not in wrongdoing but only in the truth, bears all things, hopes all things, withstands all things. If I compare this list with my own conduct, I realize that I am still a long way from the end of my journey and have many battles to fight and perhaps much to suffer before I achieve such a love.

How do I get there? Love means first of all: I am glad that you exist! It is good that there is a "you"! I have to add here: Am I good to my neighbor? Not just the ques­tion of whether I like him. What I spontaneously feel is not within my power. But I can very well wish the other person good, desire his welfare.

To love my neighbor, who of course is not always my favorite person, who on occa­sion might even be my enemy there is no surer way than to think about the fact that God is well-disposed toward him. When I take into con­sideration that God totally loves this neighbor who is so troublesome to me and that he accepts even me with all my faults and says Yes to me, then surely I can try to love my neighbor as well.

In today’s reading from Matthew 22, Jesus is challenged to choose the greatest among the 613 commandments in the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament). He names two: love of God (Dt 6:4-5) and love of neighbor (Lv 19:18). These commandments cover two dimensions of the biblical concept of love. The third dimension—God’s love for us—is even more basic.

God’s love for us is the fundamental presupposition of the entire Bible. God has loved us first, and so we can and should love God in return. God’s love has been made manifest in God’s gift of creation, in the choice of Israel as God’s people, in sending Jesus to us and in giving us life and the promise of eternal life. Those who have experienced God’s love can love God and others in return.
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The commandment to love God, which is known as the Shema (“Hear, O Israel”) and is a quotation of Dt 6:4-5, was (and is) part of Jewish daily prayer. The text suggests that our love for God must be total, involving all aspects (heart, soul and mind) of our person. The theological virtue of love has God as its object.