Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint 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.”
To love is to give everything and ask for nothing
1. Silenced them. Who you’re talking to will determine how you deliver your message. We can’t treat everyone the same way; you have to adapt to each person. Some people experience criticism as a personal attack. With these individuals, you need to be more subtle to prevent them from thinking you’re attacking them. Instead, make it clear you’re addressing a specific behavior, but that doesn’t mean you don’t care about them. Look, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Communicating well is an art.
2. To love. No one can force another person to love. Let’s remember that love originates from God and in God. That’s why when two people who have never seen each other meet, get to know each other, and start sharing, something only God can provide emerges: love. Attraction is one thing—it’s just a bridge—but love is much more. Remember what Saint Paul said: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things”. Someone who loves knows that they are complementing and planning with another, because true love enhances your life; it doesn’t control it. It strengthens your ideals; it doesn’t tear them down. Someone who loves becomes whole.
3. Neighbor. The philosopher Spinoza said that love is the joy that the other person’s existence brings to us. He also said that love means feeling their pain. It’s about being empathetic with what happens to others, because compassion is the key to love: splitting the pain in half. The love Jesus proposes to us is co-suffering (compassion) and co-rejoicing (congratulation, which means rejoicing together). This is the primary characteristic of true love.
Never forget that something good is on the way!
God bless you and protect you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
