Love God for God Alone

Homily for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

When the Pharisees ask Jesus which commandment is the greatest, they are looking for a rule. Instead, Jesus gives them a relationship.

"You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." Then he immediately adds, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Centuries later, St. Bernard of Clairvaux would write, "Love God for God alone." At first, that sounds simple. Yet it may be one of the most demanding spiritual teachings ever expressed.

Many of us begin by loving God because of what God does for us. We pray when we need help. We turn to God for strength in times of illness, loss, uncertainty, or grief. We thank God for blessings received. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, it is often how faith begins.

But Bernard suggests that there is a deeper stage in the spiritual life. Over time, we grow to love God not simply because God answers our prayers, comforts us in sorrow, or blesses our lives. We come to love God because God is God. We discover that God is the highest good, the deepest beauty, the truest love. God becomes not merely the giver of gifts but the gift itself.

That is what Jesus places at the center of the Law.

The first reading from Exodus shows us what this love looks like in daily life. The Lord speaks about strangers, widows, orphans, and the poor. These were the most vulnerable people in ancient society. God tells the people that they must treat them with compassion and justice.

Notice how practical this is. Love of God is not measured by how often we speak about God. Love of God becomes visible in the way we treat other people, especially those who can give us nothing in return. The stranger, the lonely person, the struggling neighbor, the one who depends upon our kindness, all become opportunities to demonstrate whether our love for God is genuine.

Jesus joins these two commandments together because they are really two sides of the same reality. The more we love God, the more we begin to see others as God sees them. The more we love others, the more we discover the presence of God among us.

Then we hear Paul's words to the Thessalonians. Paul praises them because their faith had become known everywhere. They had received the Gospel so fully that their lives became a witness to others.

What happened to them? They fell in love with the living God. Their faith was no longer merely an idea or a set of beliefs. It became a way of life that others could see.

Perhaps that is the question these readings place before us today. Why do we love God?

Do we love God because we fear God's judgment? Many a sinner has begun to fashion a relationship because of fear. Do we love God because we need God's help, seek God's protection, or hope for God's blessings? There is nothing wrong with any of these reasons. In fact, they often mark the beginning of a relationship with God. But Jesus invites us to something deeper. He calls us to love God not merely because of what God can do for us, but because God is worthy of our love. As St. Bernard would later say, we are called to love God for God alone. As St. Bernard would later say, we are called to love God for God alone. We love God because of who God is: the One who has loved us into being. Before we ever sought God, God first sought us. Before we ever loved God, God first loved us.

I suspect that many of us who have walked with the Lord for decades can recognize that journey. We may have begun by asking God for things. But as the years passed, we discovered something more precious. We discovered that God's greatest gift is God's very self.

And when that love takes root in our hearts, it inevitably reaches out to others. Love of God blossoms into love of neighbor. The two become inseparable.

That is the wisdom of Jesus. That is the teaching of St. Bernard. And that is the vocation of every Christian life: to love God for God's own sake and, because of that love, to embrace one another with the compassion of Christ.

For in the end, all the law and all the prophets hang upon this one great truth: when we allow ourselves to be loved by God, we gradually learn how to love as God loves.