30th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
Love God and love your neighbour
In today’s extract from Matthew’s Gospel Jesus
reduces the 613 regulations of the Old Law to just
two basic commandments: Love God and love your
neighbour. The two are closely intertwined and
Victor Hugo expressed this truth quite beautifully at
the end of his classic work ‘Les Miserables’: ‘To love
another person is to see the face of God’. American
author Kyle Idleman annunciates the same truth
from the other end of the spectrum by saying ‘we
love others best when we love God most’. It begins
with God. All we have and are comes from Him and
awareness of that fact is the wellspring from which
love of self and neighbour flows. If we accept that
God has fashioned man and woman in His own
image then all people are loveable. What then does
love of neighbour look like? The answer lies close
to home! The wonderful 1964 Musical ‘Fiddler on
the Roof’ contains a memorable and touching scene
where the husband Tevye asks his wife Golde, ‘do you
love me’? Her reply is powerful in its’ simplicity: ‘for
twenty five years I’ve washed your clothes, cooked
your meals, cleaned your house, given you children,
milked the cow…. If that’s not love, what is’? Indeed!