A conversation on love as the greatest commandments and the most beautiful of all words spoken.
In today’s Gospel reading, one of the scribes asked Jesus about the commandment that was of top priority. It is curious to note that Jesus did not choose any of the Ten Commandments as the most important. He rather identified an undiluted love for God as the most important of all commandments. He then placed the love for one’s neighbor as for oneself as the second most important commandment of God. Why did Jesus not consider any of the commandments in the Decalogue as the most or second most important?
This is because every commandment is rooted in love, either love for God or love for one’s neighbors or in both. That is the reason there is no law in the Decalogue, which says, “You should love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself”. Love is the root of each of the ten commandments and, therefore, the most basic of the precepts of the Lord. It is only in and through love that human existence can discover the profundity of its telos.
Love is Living
I had once a discussion with school children at Mass. I asked them, “What would life have been like without love?” One child replied, “It would be very sad.” Another said, “It would be full of darkness.” Still another replied, “It’s simply unimaginable.” These are kids, who enjoy so much love from their parents and families. They could not imagine a world without love. Their guile little minds could not conceive of human existence devoid of love.
Indeed, love is the most beautiful of all words divinities and men alike have ever spoken. Love is the most powerful force that has ever existed and that will ever exist, visible and invisible. But Love is not just a word, a sound, an empty expression. Love is a living, powerful force, which blazes like fire, a fire that not even water can quench.
Love can overcome everything, but nothing can overcome love. She is pure and flawless. Love is not a desire of the flesh, or an attraction initiated by any material desire. It is not infatuation, which burns just on the surface and then dies out with the same urgency it started. Love is but a passionate movement of the heart towards another. Love is the most alluring and endearing of all forces in nature. It purifies, beautifies and makes whole. Wherever there is love, life is complete. Life can only be worth living when it is lived in and for love. An existence robbed of love is accursed. Love is the only difference between heaven and hell. Heaven is adorned with love, but hell is full of cruelty.
Love is Sacrificing and Self-giving
Love is sacrificing and self-giving. She is kind and merciful. Love is selfless and tolerant. Yet she is not permissive, but disciplined and disciplining. Whoever truly loves possesses the best of all things. For love is not just the attribute of God but God himself. As a result, he who loves, will never work in darkness. Even when one thinks that love causes so much pain and is sometimes not reciprocated, one must realize that fortitude and forbearance are some of the characters of love. It is not without reason that love is called passion (from the Latin word “passio”— ‘suffering’). Whoever cannot make unconditional sacrifices for love, is not worthy of love. For love and sacrifice are two sides of the same coin. The strength of love is sacrifice and Love dies when the spirit of sacrifice gives up.
[Readings: 2 Timothy 2:8-15; Mark 12:28-34]
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