“And one of them, a doctor of the law, asked him, tempting him: ‘Master, which is the great commandment in the law?’ Jesus said to him: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets.'” Gospel of St Matthew 22:35-40
In this passage, Our Lord Jesus Christ breaks down all of the laws and commandments to its fundamental meaning, it’s foundation. We have to love God with our whole being and love our neighbors as ourselves. The Catholic Church provides the seven sacraments, mass, numerous prayers, writings of the saints, rules on what constitutes a sin, and many other teachings to fulfill this foundation. We need to always keep these two commandments that Christ Himself has given us in our minds when we live our lives. Every action we do, every prayer or devotion we say, every act of charity, has to follow these two rules if we are to grow closer to God and grow as Catholics. This idea is summarized so well by one of the doctors of the Church:
“True perfection consists in love of God and neighbor; the more perfectly we keep these two commandments the more perfect we will be.” -St Theresa of Avila
Old Testament References
When Christ had spoken these two commandments, he had referenced parts of the old testament:
“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength.” Deutoronomy 6:4-5.
“Seek not revenge, nor be mindful of the injury of they citizens. Thou shalt love thy friend as thyself. I am the Lord.” Leviticus 19:18
In referencing these two passages from the old testament scriptures, and by saying that the whole law depends on these two commandments, Jesus is saying that these two commandments have always been the foundation of salvation, from which all Christian morality comes from. From the beginning of time, and until the end of time, these two commandments will always be the most important.
What happens when we don’t follow both of these commandments?
If we don’t love God above everything and love our neighbors as ourselves, the only other person we can love is ourselves. This inevitably causes a disordered view of the world, that you can do anything you want or need to in order to make yourself happy. The end result is a multitude of vices and sins taking root in our hearts, cutting ourselves off from God.
Take a look at the world we live in and you will see a world of brokenness and despair. Evils are everywhere in our world, and it is due to this disordered self-love that has been and continues to be presented as a virtue rather than the vice that it actually is. How many times do we hear that we need to cut out people from our lives who do not make us happy? How many times are we told that our own wants should come before other people’s needs? And how often do we help others to make ourselves feel good, rather than helping others because it is the right thing to do? We need to stop being so full of ourselves. We need to always keep in mind the words of Christ “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24)
We Must Love God Above All
“Thus, every act of help that he performs should proceed from the charity which he has through love of Me. And every evil also, is done by means of his neighbor, for, if he does not love Me, he cannot be in charity with his neighbor.” God to St Catherine of Sienna in The Dialogue.
In this quote, God makes it clear to St Catherine that we must love Him first, before we love others. Without love for God, we cannot love properly. Without love of God, the source of all love, any love for others is not actual love and comes from selfish intentions. This is why Jesus states that we need to love God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind. We need this in order to properly love others, and to follow any of the commandments of God, or the laws of the Church.
We still do need to love others, because if we do not we will hear Christ say that when He was hungry, we did not feed them and when He was naked we did not cloth Him. He told us that whatsoever we do to the least of His people, that we do unto Him (Matthew 25:40). And by not loving others, we deny the human dignity they deserve for being made in the image of God.
Hierarchy of Love
We see this Hierarchy of Love forming throughout scripture and throughout writings of the Church and saints, which is that we must love God with our whole being, love others as we would ourselves, and we need to deny ourselves.
This is such a stark difference between what we are commanded to do and what we are encouraged to do in this world. In fact the world is the opposite, we must love ourselves above everything, we must love our neighbors so we feel good, and deny God. The world has the order reversed, and it really shows.
Think of the saints throughout Church history. Not one of them became a saint for putting themselves above others, and certainly not for putting themselves above God. They had the right order of love, and that is why they became saints.
Humble Yourself
To deny yourself does not mean to give in to self-loathing, which is an ugly form of pride. We are in fact made in God’s image, so to have hate toward yourself is to deny the wonderful creation that Our Lord has made. To deny yourself means to seek humility, not self-hatred. In seeking humility we realize how much we really need to rely on God, and not ourselves. Humility is a way to understand the importance of the other person and to realize that they were also made in God’s image, and not made lower than us. Through humility, we learn the proper order of how we should love, and combat our pride.
How Do We Live This?
My suggestion would be to do some real self-reflection, ideally every day. Do you love God with your whole being? How do you know and how do you show this? Do you love others as yourself? Or do you think you are more important than others? Do your wants come before others’ needs? Ask yourselves these questions and any others, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you through this. Also, we must pray often, telling God that we love Him and that we accept His will with no argument. We must also help others, do things for others, and tell others that we love them.