When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law, tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Mt 22:34-40).

Jesus, in response, was not just throwing up a cloud of theological dust into the eyes of the Pharisees. His answer to, “which commandment in the law is the greatest?” was drawn directly from the Torah. Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 and merged the two verses together as one unit. The emphasis being that the greatest aspiration for humanity is to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves, not either/or. Jesus again was showing that he did not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but that he came to fulfill them (cf. Mt 5:17).

In this statement, Jesus also revealed the foundation of all reality, the Trinitarian communion of love. For the immanence of God – God within himself – has always been, always is, and always will be a communion of love. God the Father loves the Son, God the Son receives the Father’s love and in return loves God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit is the love expressed and shared between God the Father and God the Son. The overflow and abundance of this perichoresis, or divine dance of trinitarian communion, has been the loving of creation into existence out of this infinite, outpouring of love.

We as God’s created beings have been loved into existence too! We are loved and capable of loving him and one another in return mirroring on earth the love that is shared in Heaven. It is through our participation in the life of Jesus that we can live up to his command to love even our enemies, best expressed in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:29-37).

May we make time each day to receive, rest, rejoice, and reside in the love of God, who is Love. From this experience of being loved, may our thoughts, words, and actions flow. When conflicts or challenges arise, we can resist responding from defensive reactions, refuse to retaliate in kind when faced with any negativity, and renounce any temptations that seek to divert, distract, and distance us from the love of God that we have received.

Let us take care of ourselves and each other. Life, even at its best, is fragile and can slip away from us in the blink of an eye. With each opportunity that arises, say yes to sharing the love with which we have received from God and help each other when and where we are presented with opportunities to do so.

When catching the eye of another we can offer a smile. If someone asks how we are, we can respond by saying that we are better because they asked. When interrupted, we can take a breath and embrace the invitation for engagement. We can intend this morning to seek opportunities to do some random acts of kindness, especially for that someone who ordinarily and regularly gets under our skin. We can reach out to someone for whom we know is going through a lot, not to fix them, but just to be present, to listen. Jesus met people person to person, loved them in that moment of encounter, and began from there.

Perichoresis! Today, may we intentionally choose to participate in the dance of God’s trinitarian Love and allow his Love to reign free in our lives to overflowing.

Picture: Sharing our smiles with you today, one from heaven and one from earth!

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, August 23, 2024