You shall love your neighbor as yourself

by David Lins  |  10/29/2023  |  (Being) Catholic Matters

At first listen, one might be tempted to hear this weekend’s Gospel (Mt. 22:34-40) and conclude that Jesus tossed out the ten commandments and replaced them with love (love of God and love of neighbor).

“I told you man! Jesus wiped out all the old restrictions and now we can do whatever we want as long as we say we are his!”

Not so fast, hippie.

What if he was restating them while putting the emphasis where it belongs, on love?

If we ponder it for more than a brief moment—something we should all do a lot more often—we discover he was showing us the fruit of those ten “restrictions.” Put another way, he was making clear what we are running toward, instead of highlighting what we are running from.

What happens when we follow the first three of the ten commandments? Here they are (as a refresher): 1. You shall have no other gods before me. 2. You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain. 3. Keep the Sabbath holy.

I would submit what results from following those commandments is (drumroll) following the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

And what about the other seven commandments? The ones about honoring your parents, not killing, not committing adultery, not stealing, not bearing false witness, and not coveting what your neighbor has been blessed with?

You know where I’m headed.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

In reality, the ten commandments show us how to accomplish Jesus’ two most important ones.