It has become clear throughout the history of civilization that we need laws. In order to function and operate in a manner that intends to safeguard the livelihood of all of us, there have to be regulatory codes that prescribe acceptable and unacceptable behavior. At the same time, it has been shown that simply because something is a law does not mean that it is a good law, i.e., a law that truly safeguards the livelihood of all those who fall under the law. Laws are necessary, but they only can go so far. They can prescribe codes of behavior but they cannot transform hearts. And many times, it is the complacency and rigidity of hearts that make a law necessary. Laws by themselves cannot cultivate or maintain communion and relationship.

In the law-filled book of Leviticus (Lv 19:1-2, 11-18) found in the Torah of the Hebrew Testament, we hear today a litany of things that we should not do: lie, swear, profane, defraud, curse, judge, hate,…to name a few. It is perhaps the closing line of the scriptural selection, though, that bears the single positive and most important directive of the passage. It’s the admonition that we know so well as part of the “greatest commandment”:

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Recall that this is Jesus’ answer in the Gospels when asked by the wise young man, what is the greatest commandment. Well at least part of the answer. Jesus first stresses that you must Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. He is quoting from Deuteronomy here. But he quickly speaks of a ‘second’ commandment that is like the first (MT 22:34-40). He then goes on to add the Leviticus admonition to love your neighbor as yourself. I must confess that I am not convinced that this is a hierarchy of levels of love.

Are we talking about two different things here, when we say that we must love God, and then love our neighbor as ourself? How is the first commandment ‘like’ the second? And what does “love your neighbor as yourself” mean anyway? God, neighbor, self. Offhand, we might say that these are three totally separate things that we are talking about.

We certainly treat them separately and mean perhaps different things when we speak about each, but I think that there may be something to be said about how close these three terms are? How can God, neighbor and self be connected in a manner that blurs the lines of difference, while still maintaining some distinction, and underlines everything we possibly could hope to be and do as followers of Christ? It does seem curious that the one positive commandment in the Leviticus chapter is this very last one. Could it be perhaps another way of how loving God, loving others, and loving self are not meant to be separated, but are all of one piece?

What is this ‘self?’ It seems like the ‘as yourself’ piece places a tremendous responsibility upon US! But this may just be the result of assuming that the self means something totally different from God and totally separate from neighbors or others. Without being too philosophical, could we imagine that we are not speaking so much about three different things, but rather the inherent and indeed intimate relationship between Who God is, who we are, and who our neighbor is? Could this be the binding connection that transcends the more obvious distinctions between the three?

The 25^th chapter in Matthew’s Gospel (Mt 25:31-46) today paints a rather dualistic and even perhaps harsh picture of how we will be judged in the end.   We hear of how the Son of Man, upon his return will divide the sheep from the goats, using the criteria of those who kept the commandment to ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ and those who did not. The interesting thing about this criteria is that the Son of Man does not say that they kept the commandment to ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ explicitly, but instead tells them that whenever they performed these loving actions, it was done to Him!

For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me,
in prison and you visited me.’

Likewise, for the ‘goats’ – inaction or unwillingness to care was also done to Him!:

For I was hungry and you gave me no food,
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
a stranger and you gave me no welcome,
naked and you gave me no clothing,
ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’

It is interesting that both the sheep and the goats, when confronted in this way, express how they were not aware that in doing or not doing these loving actions – that they were doing anything to or for God!   The caring relationship that they either nourished, as sheep, or ignored, as goats, was not immediately seen as something of divine nature, i.e., something that had anything to do with God! Again, how close are the notions of God, neighbor and self? It appears that, according to Matthew’s gospel, a lot closer than we would ordinarily consider. There is almost a sense of equal-footing when we speak of this ‘trinity’ of self, other and God.

Rather than simply being a scripture passage about the scales of judgment on moral behavior, could Matthew 25 also be telling us something about how everything we do or do not do affects others, ourselves and God – all at the same time! This means that the most important aspect about our lives is not just what we do or do not do, but how we are in or not in loving relationship with each other. This is saying something very profound about the nature of this mysterious God of ours. Although we may try to convince ourselves otherwise, we cannot separate our relationship with God from our self or from others. Matthew seems to be saying this quite clearly in today’s Gospel:

I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink…
I…a stranger and you gave me no welcome,

But whether we are acting as sheep or goats, we fail to recognize how important the relationships that we have with each other are for everyone and everything. Is the Gospel today describing perhaps the terrible isolation that results from attempting to separate ourselves from each other and God? Is our God… are we… and are our neighbors more than ‘others’ that we are prescribed to behave towards in specific ways? Is there a deeper reality – a type of mutual friendship engendered by Love that is the very basis of the relationship between God, others and ourselves?

The Catholic priest, Denis Edwards, suggests that this mutuality is at the heart of Who the Trinitarian God is and that “love is revealed most radically… in mutual, equal and ecstatic friendship.”[i]  This could mean that to love God with our whole person and to love our neighbor as ourselves is primarily a way of accepting God as divine friendship in each other! When we reach out to others we are participating in God’s work and God is affected by the love or lack of love that we give to one another!

There is no more real law than love because it is the relationship of source that creates, transforms, and sustains us in who we are and all that we are called to be. Could this be one way of looking at Leviticus and Matthew’s admonition to love God and neighbor as and with your whole self?

[i] Denis Edwards, The God of Evolution (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1999) pp. 15-16

Peace,

Thomas

(Originally posted February 19, 2018)