There is one more dialogue between Jesus and the Sadducees at the Temple precincts that is not included in this cycle of Readings, where Jesus is asked to address the question on the Resurrection from the dead. Not surprisingly, they were not successful at trapping Jesus then, either. Not to be outdone, the Pharisees decide to pick-up this week where the chief priests and elders had failed. They also take the route of challenging Jesus on his teaching focusing particularly where Jesus stood on the precepts of the Mosaic Law. On one level it seems to be what we might call a “softball” question – which Commandment is the greatest? While the Jews acknowledged 613 laws in the Scriptures, the Shemah generally stands as the all-encompassing commandment: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Although Matthew abbreviates the formula as found in Deuteronomy, it is the familiar prayer recited daily by observant Jews. The Pharisees would nod approvingly at this response as Jesus delivers the answer that any faithful Jew would have. However, and without prompting, Jesus quickly adds: “The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Here Jesus takes a more radical approach to the nature of the Law. As Christians, when we think of the Commandments we tend to focus on the Decalogue: The Ten Commandments, where the first three outline our obligation to God and the other seven define our relationship to our neighbor. Jesus offers a total summary of the Law in two simple commandments grounded in love: love of God and love of neighbor. Here we see that our obligations to God and our obligations to our neighbor mirror each other.

While Jesus is not at this point challenged to define “neighbor” as he is in a similar encounter as recounted by St. Luke, as Christians we have come to understand neighbor with a broad definition going well-beyond the boundaries of just those who live near us or who are connected to us by ethnicity, race, region, or religion. All are men and women are our neighbors – all are due our love as the love of God is itself without borders.

We cannot lose sight of the primacy of our love for God. It makes possible and essentially defines our ability to love our neighbor. When our love for God is preeminent, we encounter his mercy and his unconditional love for us. Love for God should lift us beyond our limitations and help us to achieve a global perspective of the world. As we encounter God’s love for us – the self-sacrificial love that Jesus models for us from the Cross – we must face up to the demand that we extend ourselves well-beyond our comfort zones to exercise a love of neighbor that is all-inclusive. In a world torn by hatred and division along so many different imaginary lines, love of neighbor grounded in our love for God stands as the only solution for peace.

There are many in our world today that seek to place limits on love while at the same time demanding tolerance for others. Tolerance is not love and indeed it can actually be unloving and marginalizing. We are not called to be tolerant, we are not even called to be nice, we are called to love our neighbor as our very self.

This begs the question – how do we love ourselves? We know from experience and wisdom that love of self is anything but self-indulgent and self-aggrandizing. We take measures to ensure our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health and well-being. We challenge and discipline ourselves; we make sacrifices for our own well-being; we learn to understand self-control and moderation.

Parents exercise a love of their children which attempts to inculcate those same values in our children. Of course, children being children and, especially, adolescents being adolescents, we do not always feel successful at this endeavor, and it can indeed be frustrating and painful, but any good parent knows that it must be done and that it is for the greater well-being and growth of their children.

The same is true, then, of our relationship to the neighbor – we are not called merely indulge them in their passions, appetites, and desires, but rather to assist them in their growth and to enable them to grow in their love of God, so that they might better love themselves, and then understand how they are loved by their neighbor and then come to love their neighbor as they love themselves.

Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.