Reflection for August 20, Friday Saint Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (M): Matthew 22:34-40

Gospel: Matthew 22:34-40

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."

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Reflection:

The story is told about a middle-aged rich woman who was always present in the church for worship. It was her way of showing people how she lived the commandment of loving God with all our Heart, Soul and Mind. Near the house where she lived is a community of poor people.  

While the pious lady was passing by the leader of the poor community saw her and he remembered her as the lady who was always at church. So he said: I will ask help from this prayerful woman for I know that she will not fail me.  

He approached her and asked for her help in whatever way possible. But the supposedly pious and prayerful woman said no and she even had the temerity to scold the poor man. Obviously the woman was not true to her self- proclamation that she loves God. And obviously her love for God was a charade for how can she love God when she ignores the poor who ask for her help?  

In the gospel Jesus gives us the two greatest commandments: Our love for God and our love for our neighbor. We cannot separate our love for God with our love for our neighbors. These two greatest commandments are inseparable one cannot exist without the other one.  

If we profess to love God with our worship; God wants this love for Him to cascade to our poor neighbors. This is always the action that God wants us to do: To love Him and our neighbors.  

If we say that we love God yet we don’t love our neighbors because they incessantly disturb us. And if we say that we love God yet we can’t forgive. Then our love for God is empty, without force and baseless. –Marino J. Dasmarinas