Week of November 11, 2002
Pastor Dan

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
     Matthew 22:37,39

St. Matthew does not give us a blueprint of exactly how the two great commandments to love relate to one another. I call that "exactly how" room for the Holy Spirit to speak to our particular situations in life. To interpret the relationship between love of God and love of neighbor is a bit like turning a diamond in the light.

Theologians through the centuries have turned the diamond on these verses. In the fourth century, Evagrius Ponticus argued that love of neighbor is love of God because it is love of the image of God. The twelfth-century abbot Ailred of Rievaux contended that "love of neighbor precedes love of God." As we begin to love our neighbor, we grow in our need for God in loving our neighbor. Martin Luther in the sixteenth century proclaimed that while our neighbor is needy, God needs nothing. True service to God must always be for the sake of the neighbor: "Even the preaching of God's glory and our praising and thanking Him take place on earth in order that our neighbors may be converted and brought to God thereby." Closer to the modern era, Adolf Harnack thought the Gospel places love of neighbor beside love of God because "the love of one's neighbor is the only practical proof on earth of that love of God which is strong in humanity."

I like the fact that the "exactly how" may come in one or many of these interpretations. But lest we get too caught up in the head trip of it all, Pascal brings us back down to earth in our day-to-day opportunities to love God and neighbor: "All the good maxims are already current; what we need is to apply them."

Almighty God, in our struggle to love our neighbors near and far, help us to grow in our love for you. In our worship and praise of you, lead us into the needs and demands of our neighbors. May our concrete love for our neighbors inspire others to love you and their neighbors. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen

Contributed by Pastor Dan
Published Monday November 11, 2002
Week 50 of Liturgical Year A