How can our love be loyal?

Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, the primary characteristic of love is loyalty. The Hebrew word for love, like its English counterpart, can express ideas of familial warmth (Ru 4:15), erotic attraction (Gn 24:67) or a desire for things (Is 1:23, Eccl 5:9). But whereas English usage tends to stress love’s affective qualities, Hebrew emphasizes fidelity. Today’s Gospel passage can confuse any who wonder how Jesus could demand an affective kind of love. This is not what he meant. Jesus drew on the biblical meaning of love, commanding unwavering loyalty to God and neighbor. Jesus shared this kind of loyal love with the Father and wished his disciples to experience it in the Spirit.

Today’s Gospel reading has parallels in Mt 22:34-40 and Lk 10:25-28. Matthew includes a briefer version of the passage among the debates Jesus has with his opponents in Jerusalem. Luke uses this tradition to introduce the parable of the good Samaritan. For Mark, this account illustrates the realities of the kingdom. Jesus’ encouraging words to the scribe who asked which was the most important commandment, “You are not far from the kingdom of God,” reveal that this kind of loyal love is essential to life in God.

The “kingdom of God” was the organizing principle of Jesus’ preaching. Mark emphasizes two elements of the kingdom. The first is God’s self-disclosure. God had a message to share, and humanity could encounter that message in Jesus’ preaching and example. The second element Mark emphasizes is the human response to God’s message. The kingdom took root whenever the Gospel message transformed human minds and actions.

Jesus’ great insight was to organize his preaching of the kingdom around the loyal love God offered Israel in the covenant. Divine love was steadfast; human love must be the same. Jesus could have combed the Scriptures and found other organizing principles for his program, as indeed other so-called messiahs did. Zealots focused on God’s power. Gnostics focused on divine wisdom. Others focused on righteousness, justice or holiness. Jesus focused on the covenant and the eternal love that it symbolized. The kingdom’s arrival will be complete when human love is as reliable as God’s.

The sense of crisis many feel today inspires them to search out new principles around which to organize their life. Some believe, for example, that loyalty to a certain brand of personal masculinity will lead them to happiness. Others attempt to build lives around economic, fitness or relationship goals. These are no substitute for the loyal love of God that Jesus holds up in today’s Gospel for our emulation. One needs only to love the way God loved first in order to find a life worth living.

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God continued to love Israel even when the spark was long dead, as several prophets teach. Just so, our loyalty to God must remain even when reasons are elusive. This was Jesus’ example on the cross. Likewise, God sends rain on the just and unjust, and our generosity to neighbor must extend even to those who do not deserve it. An even greater challenge is to forgive. God forgives even the most vicious sinner; we must do the same. When our love becomes as steadfast as God’s, we will discover the kingdom all around us.