Thirtieth Sunday of the Year: Love in three Dimensions (Ex. 22:21-27; 1 Thes. 1:5-10; Mat. 22:34-40)

There is an immortal poem written by an Englishman Leigh Hunt about a man called Abou Ben Adhem. Abou Ben Adhem woke from his sleep one night and saw in his room an angel writing in a book of gold the names of those who love God. "And is mine one?" inquired Abou. "No, not so," replied the angel. "I pray thee, then," said Abou, "write me as one who loves his fellow men." The following night the angel came again and displayed the names of those who love God and Abou Ben Adhem's name topped the list. This poem makes the point that true love of God and true love of our fellow human beings are like two sides of the same coin. One cannot exist apart from the other. That is what we find in today's gospel. Jesus is asked about the greatest commandment in the law. The book answer, of course is love of God. But Jesus does not stop there. He goes on to give a more practical answer. He gives the other side of the coin as well, which is love of neighbour. True love of God and true love of neighbour are practically one and the same thing. As Jesus said:

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: "You shall love your neighbour as yourself." On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40).

Jesus is here reacting against a one-dimensional understanding of love. For Jesus, true love must express itself in three dimensions. These three dimensions are (a) love of God, (b) love of neighbour, and (c) love of oneself. The first two are positively commanded; the last one is not commanded but presumed to be the basis of all loving. The commandment to love your neighbour as yourself presumes that you love yourself.

Even though Jesus' answer touched on all three dimensions of love, what is the emphasis, the point Jesus is trying to make? When you ask a question that demands one straightforward answer and the person answers your question and goes on to add another thing that you did not actually ask for, it is most likely that the person is trying to get your attention on the second element of the answer. We saw it last week when Jesus was asked about paying taxes to Caesar. Jesus answered, "Give back to Caesar's what is Caesar's," and then went on to add "and to God what is God's." Here the emphasis of Jesus is not on Caesar's rights, which are apparently obvious, but on God's rights which they were ignoring. In the same way, the emphasis in today's question about the greatest commandment is not on the obvious love of God but on the love of neighbour which they were trampling upon.

Remember that the persecution of Jesus and his followers was championed by well-meaning religious people motivated by what they believed to be zeal and love for God. The same people asking about the first commandment are the ones trying to entrap and kill Jesus. They are so conscious about love of God. Why then are they so insensitive when it comes to love of neighbour? Saul who later became St Paul is a good example of this kind of skewed religiosity. Jesus prophesied that "an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God" (John 16:2).

The error of the Pharisees is still here with us. There are still many Christians who try to separate love of fellow human beings from love of God. Their commitment to faith does not include commitment to human rights and to justice and peace issues. We shall do well to heed the message of Jesus in today's gospel: that true love of God and true love of neighbour are two sides of the same coin. Any attempt to separate them is a falsification of the message of Christ."Those who say, 'I love God,' and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen" (1 John 4:20).