432. Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time (L)

Meditations no. 617 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

We must love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength.

TODAY we are presented with a teaching of Jesus on the first precept of the Decalogue. The fact that it is included in the three synoptic Gospels shows the wide diffusion it had among the primitive Christian communities.

St. Matthew relates that on one occasion a doctor of the law approached Jesus-a wise man according to the categories of the time-and asked him the following question: Teacher, what is the main commandment of the Law? The question, as the Gospel text emphasizes, had been proposed to tempt him, not with the intention of learning from the One whom he calls Teacher. He tried to involve Jesus in the debates of rabbinical schools of the time, in order to observe the position he assumed and to be able to tie him up. In fact, in the context of the Gospel of St. Matthew, this scene follows that of the tribute to Caesar and the question of the resurrection of the dead, in which the Pharisees with the Herodians, and later the Sadducees, sought a way to make the Lord fall into some error.

Jesus, however, goes beyond the intentions of his detractors and goes to the heart of the teachings of Sacred Scripture, declaring that the greatest precept is precisely that which every good Jew, following the provisions of the Mosaic Law, frequently recited in his prayers: 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 the first commandment. These words of Deuteronomy, which are echoed in many other biblical texts, were an integral part of the prayer called Shema Yisrael (listen, Israel), one of the most beloved by the people. With his answer, Jesus proclaimed in a clear and definitive way the precept that should illuminate forever the earthly walk of every man, directing him towards the only thing that is truly important, eternal salvation.

Here comes into play what is affirmed in the Scriptures about the love of God. To love God, as the sacred texts so often repeat, is to reverence him and to treat him with the filial fear of the good son, who seeks not only not to offend his Father God, but to fill him with joy, as indicated by phrases such as the following: you will obey his precepts, listen to his voice, worship him and live united to him.

To love God is to show him gratitude for his incessant favors, constantly recalling them, as many psalms are expressed. Thus one of them joyfully sings: You have done many wonders, O Lord, my God; many are your designs on our behalf. There is no one comparable to you. If I wanted to proclaim and proclaim them, they would be countless. To love God is to venerate him, to praise his name and to worship him, as Joshua advised the people of Israel: take care to keep the commandment and the law given to you by Moses, the servant of the Lord, to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, to keep his commandments, to be united to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

In short, as St. Augustine writes: “God has established this rule of love: thou shalt love,” he said, “thy neighbor as thyself; but God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy understanding, that thou mayest direct all thy thoughts, all thy life, all thy mind unto Him from whom thou didst receive the very things thou dost consecrate to him. … He exempts no part of our life from the fulfillment of this duty.”

The foundation of love for God is the love that God has for us. To abandon idols that destroy love for God.

IN MANY ways Jesus taught that the ultimate foundation of our love for God is the love that God himself has for us. The beloved disciple understood this well when he soberly writes: we love [God], because He first loved us. God’s love precedes all the events of our lives, behind which we are to discover His eternal goodness.

Consider with me this marvel of God’s love,” wrote our Father, “the Lord who goes out to meet us, who waits, who places himself by the wayside, so that we have no choice but to see him. And he calls us personally, speaking to us of our things, which are also his own, moving our conscience to compunction, opening it to generosity, impressing on our souls the illusion of being faithful, of being able to call ourselves his disciples. The most palpable manifestation of this love of God is found in the Incarnation of the Word.”There is no proof of divine charity, in fact,” St. Thomas teaches, “as that God, the Creator of all things, became a creature; that Our Lord became our brother; that the Son of God became a son of man.”

On one occasion, using a parable that his listeners could easily understand, Jesus pointed out that God cares for each of us much more than for the birds of the air, for whom the heavenly Father provides food, and more than for the lilies of the field, which he has adorned by clothing better than the greatest king could do in all his glory. That is why we must live in peace and serenity, without anxiety or anxiety, trusting that he directs the events of history. The Church encourages us today to update this teaching of Jesus by putting on our lips some inspired words: I love you, Lord, my strength, Lord, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my rock where I take refuge, my shield, the strength of my salvation, my fortress. I call on the Lord, worthy of praise, and I am safe from my enemies.

For our part, we must respond to this love of God with a love that seeks to resemble his ever more, that does not allow itself to be carried away by the false gods that are stirring up everywhere, trying to divert us or at least lull us to true love. We must aspire to receive the praises that Saint Paul addresses to the faithful of Thessalonica, who, in the midst of their tribulations, had embraced the faith firmly, to the point of being an example for believers in other Christian communities. They themselves tell us how you welcomed us and how you converted yourselves to God by abandoning idols, to serve the living and true God and to wait from heaven for his Son Jesus - whom he raised from the dead - who frees us from the wrath to come.

Today it is not stone idols that are worshipped, but other realities - some even good in themselves - that become fetishes for many, producing in the soul a movement alien to the love of God. Among these idols is one’s own self, sensual pleasure in all its manifestations, love of riches, lust for power, and so many other mirages. Deities are worshipped who deny human dignity and go against the loving plan of the true and only God, Lord of life and God of justice, truth and right.

When a Christian sets out on this path, he first arrives at lukewarmness, one of the greatest obstacles to God’s love; and, if he does not react, he can stoop to the point of committing real sins, loving creatures disorderly. In extreme cases one comes to hate God, who is seen as a limit or impediment to what disordered passions desire. In the face of these false idols, Jesus warns: no one can serve two masters, because either he will hate one and love the other, or he will lend his attachment to the first and despise the second; you cannot serve God and riches. And then he clarifies his teaching: because where your treasure is, there will be your heart. For us, our treasure - the only treasure - must be God. All our struggles and efforts must be directed to the construction of his kingdom, using the noble things of the world.

Keeping the love of God alive: if you don’t take care of it, you die.

LOVE for God cannot be taken for granted. If it is not cultivated, it languishes and dies. We keep it alive and awake through an intense filial relationship with the Lord, nourished in prayer and in the practice of the sacraments, especially Confession and the Holy Eucharist. We also cultivate it with the effort to remain in his presence, taking advantage of the different circumstances of the day, work, social and family relationships, the rest itself.

Our spiritual struggles to remove defects and combat venial sins also lead us to the love of God. It is not licit to live keeping those two candles lit that, according to the popular saying, every man procures: one for St. Michael and the other for the devil. We must extinguish the devil’s candle. We must consume our lives making it burn entirely in the service of the Lord. If our desire for holiness is sincere, if we have the docility to place ourselves in God’s hands, everything will be fine. Because he is always ready to give us his grace, and, especially in this time, the grace for a new conversion, for an improvement in our life as Christians.

In the answer to the doctor of the Law, Jesus adds to the precept of love of God a scab that is also contained in Scripture and had been taken up by the tradition of the people of Israel. The second is like this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. Love of God is united to love of neighbor, making it not only a sign of God, but the primary way in which it is to be realized. St. John, who had learned it in the school of the Master, expresses it in the following words: “If anyone says,”I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother, whom he sees, cannot love God, whom he does not see. And we have received from Him this commandment: whoever loves God, let him also love his brother.

The words of the First Reading speak of this love of neighbour in great detail, pointing out above all the obligation to protect the weak and needy, because God hears their cry. At the highest level of destitution are the ignorant and those who err. In order for love of neighbour to be a true manifestation of charity, we must be filled with God; otherwise it is easy to give in to activism. That is why our Father wrote: I think, in fact, that those who throw themselves into action - activism! - run a serious risk of going astray and dispense with prayer, sacrifice and the indispensable means to achieve a solid piety: the frequency of the sacraments, meditation, examination of conscience, spiritual reading, assiduous contact with the Blessed Virgin and with the guardian angels. … All this also contributes, with irreplaceable effectiveness, to making the Christian’s journey so pleasant, because from his interior riches flow the sweetness and happiness of God, like honeycomb.

Let us turn our gaze to Mary Most Holy, with the desire to reach every day a greater love of God that overflows with love for our neighbor. We ask her that none of our thoughts, desires, affections or actions be left outside of God.