Loving One Another (23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time)

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The epistle reading calls to mind the second of the two great commandments, which is “Love your neighbour as yourself.” This teaching is first taught in the Torah (Leviticus 19:18), and is then reiterated by Jesus in the Gospels, stating that all the Law and the Prophets hang on it (Matthew 22:39-40). He even tells His disciple that love is how others will know that we are His disciples (John 13:35).

Here, we see that St. Paul is reiterating the same teaching, that the second table of the Ten Commandments are simply expressions of the command to love one’s neighbour. This teaches us that love is the principle behind the Law. We often do not know how to love others as we ought, so God gave the Law in order to teach us how to love others properly. We err whenever we think that we can define love apart from God and His commands, as He knows better than we do what is best for ourselves.

However, we can also err if we divorce God’s commandments from the principle of love. Such an error results in an empty legalism where we treat the Law as an end in itself, rather than a means towards loving our neighbour. We ought to keep God’s law without sacrificing the love principle that undergirds it.

Finally, let us remember that such love is only possible because God loved us first. As St. John said, “we love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). We must always pray to God for the grace to love our neighbour as we ought, for apart from Him, we can do nothing good.

J. Luis Dizon