Why is it so incredibly hard to love other people at times, especially those whom we find hardest to love? Is it not enough to love God alone? Certainly, it is God who alone will judge where our eternity will be spent. Does it not seem logical to direct most, if not all, of our grace-infused efforts towards love of God, and only to the love of others when we desire it and/or when it is convenient for us?
Aside from loving our neighbor, why on earth did Our Blessed Lord command us to actually love our enemies? Does not this exhortation appear to be counterintuitive to the virtue of justice? Surely, to award an ‘enemy’ with our genuine love because, for example, that person has slandered us, would seem to be tolerating and almost even advocating an uncharitable act. Yet, we are to love those who persecute us with their words and actions. Why?
“One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, ‘Which is the first of all the commandments?’ Jesus replied, ‘The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength’.” (cf. Mark 12)
Notice: I put emphasis on the word ‘first’, twice; the scribe solely asked Our Lord which is the first of all the commandments, not the second, nor the third, nor any other. So, Our Lord naturally remarks with, ‘The first is this’. However, He does not stop there, as He continues:
“The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Should not the scribe have interjected and remarked that he only asked which is the first of all the commandments; why give him more than what he asked for? Also, notice the emphasis on the words ‘commandment’ and ‘these’. Grammatically, Our Lord should have stated, “There [are] no other commandment[s] greater than these,” but He doesn’t, He says ‘commandment’ and not ‘commandments’ because the command to love God cannot and should not ever be isolated from the command to love neighbor!
So, why does God care if human persons love one another or not? The eternal Son of God incarnated Himself to assuredly restore the lost image and likeness of God in each individual human through His redemptive work, and to make possible for us to partake in the divine nature, to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind. But, why all this rhetoric on loving your neighbor and even your enemies? Is not loving God alone enough?
The Catholic Catechism states: “Of all visible creatures only man is “able to know and love his creator.” He is “the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake,” and he alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God’s own life. It was for this end that he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity.” – CCC, 356
We were created to know God’s love and to share in that love. If we are to love God and share in His life, we must, in human solidarity, love each other and share in each other’s love. Why? The Blessed Holy Trinity is an eternal communion of divine Persons, an everlasting exchange of charity proceeding to and from the Father and the Son. The definition of love is this: to will the eternal good of another. The Father and the Son unceasingly will the good of one another, so much to the extent that Their good will, i.e. Their divine love for each other, eternally produced a divine Person, the Holy Spirit. Likewise, in the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, when a man and a woman will the good of the other through the physical manifestation of their love in conjugal union, that love produces a human person through procreation. Human reproduction, within the context of the family, images and reflects the communal love of the Holy Trinity.
Moreover, the whole of humanity was created and destined to be one in God, where God is all in all. God is One, yet three Persons; humanity was meant to be one, yet many persons. However, due to inordinate self-love, humanity was and remains weakened by division. Instead of solidarity, we have selfish individuality. Instead of willing the good of others, we arduously seek our own good, oftentimes at the expense of others. This is why the eternal Son of God enfleshed Himself and assumed the whole of humanity into His Divine Person. God wanted to restore that perfect communion and unity Adam and Eve shared in the Garden of Eden by becoming Adam in the most intimate way; by deigning to assume a human soul, intellect, and will through His condescension into the womb of the New Eve, Mary. Through the Incarnation of the Son of God, the whole of humanity can be one in love.
This is why Our Lord commands us to love our neighbor. To love our neighbor, even our enemies, is to love the Incarnate God; because, by the virtue of the Son of God assuming all humanity and becoming the ‘New [allegorical] Adam’, Christ is in all. So, to reject or despise any human person, is to reject and despise Jesus Christ. And, to love our neighbor, even our enemies, is to love the Incarnate God. This is exactly the reason why Our Blessed Lord stated, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me”. That is why to love God and neighbor is the greatest commandment. To feed, clothe, and visit your neighbor is to feed, clothe, and visit God Incarnate.