Looking at today's gospel reading the summary of the law by Jesus is so pithy it is tempting to skate over it since we have heard it so many times before. It deserves closer inspection. As per usual Jesus does not actually answer the question directly. He was asked about which of the commandments is the greatest. Instead of giving one he gives two. Catholic theology also tends to avoid absolutes such as by faith alone, grace alone or scripture alone. It tends to be "both and" with faith and works, soul and body, spiritual and temporal. In this case we have love of God and neighbour. However the situation is complicated by the condition that we love our neighbour "as yourself." (Mtt 22: 39) Thus, in any love relationship there necessarily exists a trinity of relationships. The priority goes to love of God because it proceeds all other loves: "We love because he (God) first loved us." (1 Jn 4: 19)
The second commandment "is like it." What does that mean? Since God said: " 'Let us make humankind in our own image, according to our likeness" (Gen 1: 26) it is impossible to love God without loving other human beings: "Those who say, 'I love God' and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers or sisters also." (1 Jn 4: 20-21) It is impossible to have love of God, therefore, when we do not recognize him in our fellow human beings. This has implications for how we regard the whole of humanity as Pope Francis has pointed out in his recent encyclical Tutti Fratelli.
This leads me therefore to myself since I, like all other human beings, am made in the image and likeness of God. Yet, how many of us are prone to self-condemnation!? We punish ourselves for our mistakes and sins. We inflict penance on ourselves for what we have done wrong and belittle ourselves in the eyes of others. Through negative self-labelling we self sabotage our happiness and our unhappiness becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Since 70% of my talk is, in fact, self-talk then my relationships with others, which is the remaining 30%, can only mirror my internal dialogue.
The key to fulfilling the law, enunciated by Christ, is to love God and be grateful to Him for the gift of myself. By accepting myself and loving myself I honour God's creation in me. When I honour God's work in me I will then have the vision to see God's grace and creation at work in others. That means I can love others since, like me, they are loved by God and, I pray, forgiven by God and healed by God. When I see God's grace at work and me and in others I rejoice. With gratitude I find my wonder at God's love amplified and my desire is, in fact, to love the Lord my God with all my heart and all my soul and all my mind. I am brought to love God solely out of a desire to love him and not through fear, obligation or duty: "Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us." (1 Jn 4: 11-12)
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