Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Our Lord says that to love is the center piece of Christian life. It must be the center because God is love and the center of life for a Christian is God. Perhaps in the light of this word we can be like the Pharisees who approach the Lord with this question which they knew very well and preached it very well but did not apply it to themselves. Believing themselves to be better than the others is a very serious sin. They thought they don’t need Jesus Christ to be saved because they fulfilled the Law. Jesus came to fulfill the Law for those who cannot fulfill it. This is the key word today.
Who among us can sincerely say that they fulfill these two commandments or the one commandment of love. No one fulfills it. Maybe at some points in our life we have done so when the Lord helped us, and we have been truly able to love our neighbor and even our enemy. The love of the enemy is linked to the love of our neighbor which is only something that a Christian can do. A person who does not have Christ cannot love the enemy. We would need to have Christ inside of us to do so. He would need to be inside of us so that your heart beats as Christ’s heart beats, your mouth speak as Christ’s mouth would speak. A Christian is Christ. Therefore, the only one who can love the enemy is a Christian.
Maybe another person is more honest or more virtuous and has his life together, he/she cannot love the enemy. They can love very well those who are good to them, but that is easy. Anyone can love people who love them. That is why the Lord, when asked who is my neighbor, tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. The neighbor is the one in need, who is dying or suffering and if you act like Jesus Christ, you will serve him even if he curses you. This is what Christ did to you when you despised him. The only one who can do this is the one who has Christ, a Christian.
This word is not a demand; it is not you have to love God and you have to love your neighbor, no! Jesus says you will love him. One day when the Lord grants it you will love them, you will be able to do so. You will, in the future, love your neighbor with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength. Do you want to know what Jesus means by loving in this way? The Lord has fulfilled this for us. The Lord is the only one who has done it. He is the only one who fulfilled the Shema, this command to love God and our neighbor.
He accomplished this on the cross when a spear pierced his heart. He loved with all his mind when he was crowned with thorns. This means that he loved his Father above his reason. And he loved with all his strength when they nailed his arms to the cross so that he could not move. Christ has fulfilled the Shema for us poor ones; he did what we could not do.
The psalm can help us today: Lord, you are my strength, my rock, my stronghold. You are the place where I can be safe. On this rock, I can have eternal life. If I hold onto this rock, I can love. I am sustained, supported on this rock. If I were not on this rock, I would look for other things to sustain me, but they are all sand and they will fail me. In the end your children will fail you, your spouse will fail you, the economy will fail you, the government will fail you; they are already doing it. They make things worse. But when you don’t see hope and all is dark and disastrous there is one thing that remains solid and stable: the love of the Lord. The fact that Christ loves you and gave his life for you when you were wicked and sinful. It is the kerygma that saves us, the preaching of this Good News! This is what saves us when we are in the difficulties that the world presents to us. Christ is the only one who sustains us. He is the Rock. This is true because Christ is the only one who lived the Shema, who lived this gospel.
A Christian has Christ within; he has this joy that comes from loving the other. How can we be able to love the other, to love our neighbor, if we have not first been loved by God. This is the profound conflict that faces us, that faces the world today. We love if we are loved by the other. If you don’t love me, I will not love you. The husband or the wife says to the other: love me! And the other says I will love you only if you love me. What a pair of fools. This is why they don’t love each other because they are waiting for the other one to love first.
There is only one who has loved us first, who did not wait for the other to love him: Jesus Christ. It is God who sent his only Son out of love for every man. He loved us as he loves himself. He has loved us when we were his enemies, when we have destroyed him. He has given us salvation despite what we have done. He has given us eternal life, happiness. This is a Good News. The Lord does not demand anything from us. On the contrary, he says I know that you cannot love me. I know that money comes first for you or affections or any number of things. But I have put myself in your life and someday I will be your God, as I promised Abraham. I am the only God, and I will give you a son and a land and when I give it to you, you will realize that I am the One and you will be able to love in return.
Abraham is the father of faith because he has seen God face to face on this earth and the Lord promised him a son and gave Isaac to him. He promises that one day you will love, and you will be faithful. You will be generous, you will speak well of others, and think well of them because you will be able to give your life for them and will be happy to do so. You will be able to love your neighbor and above all you will be able to love God. Let us ask the Lord to grant us this grace to love him with all our heart and mind and strength. To love him more than all our projects, our reason, and to love him above all the idols of the world, which is money!