Readings:
Exodus 22:20-26
Psalm 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51
1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10
Matthew 22:34-40

Jesus told His disciples that He came “not to abolish” the Old Testament Law “but to fulfill” it (Matthew 5:17). And in today’s Gospel, He reveals that love—of God and of neighbor—is the fulfillment of the whole of the law (see Romans 13:8–10).

Devout Israelites were expected to keep all 613 commands found in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. Jesus says today that all these, and all the teachings of the prophets, can be boiled down to just two verses of this Law (see Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18).

In this distillation, He seems to summarize the two stone tablets on which God was said to have engraved the Ten Commandments (see Exodus 32:15–16): The first tablet set out three laws concerning the love of God, such as the command not to take His name in vain; the second contained seven commands regarding love of neighbor, such as those against stealing and adultery.

Love is the hinge that binds the two tablets of the Law. We can’t love God, whom we can’t see, if we don’t love our neighbor, whom we can (see 1 John 4:20–22). But this love we are called to is far more than simple affection or warm sentiment. We must give ourselves totally to God—loving with our whole beings, with all our heart, soul, and mind. Our love for our neighbor must express itself in concrete actions, such as those set out in today’s First Reading.

“We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). As we sing in today’s Psalm, He has been our deliverer, our strength when we could not possibly defend ourselves against the enemies of sin and death.

Grateful for our salvation, we show others the love that God has shown us. In this we become imitators of Jesus, as Paul relates in today’s Epistle—laying down our lives in ways large and small, seen and unseen, our daily living offered as a continual “sacrifice of praise” (see John 15:12–13; Hebrews 13:15).