One of the errors I’ve run into is to believe that we only are to love those in need of love. It’s a view that tends to be unconsciously assumed. If this were the case, we would not love God, nor would it be the chief commandment. This idea was capitulated years ago when I heard a prelate say that as a Church we should be less concerned with offending God, and more concerned with offending our neighbor. His reasoning was that “God can take care of Himself.” It’s true that God does not need our love, and will lack no perfection if we do not offer it to Him. But to pour cold water on this disordered view of the two concrete commandments from God Himself, we simply must acknowledge that the Wisdom of scripture stands entirely at odds with this view.
If we think we are to love God because his offense leaves him in self-pity and incompleteness then the prelate is right, only insofar this is not a good reason to love God. It is not a good reason, simply because it is false.
So why then must we love God, even before our neighbor? Some might argue it’s because “it’s for our own good.” But if this isn’t understood properly it will denigrate into a form of “indirect egotism” whereby we seek God’s good (glory) for our own sake, rather than His. To St. John of the Cross this is to seek ourself in God, rather than to seek God in ourselves. In other words the object of our seeking is ourself, and God is only present to serve this self-interest.
Perhaps let’s begin with the chief understanding of why we must love God for His own sake, and then it will be clear why it benefits us, as a side-effect. Simply put, we love God because it is “truly right and just.” It is what He is owed. We offend His dignity, His works, and anything else that can be said of Him, when we do not love Him. This offense, pierces the sacred heart of Jesus, and he feels our rejection. Yet he sees our offense as our own sickness, and pities us. As we wound Him, He plans to heal us. This doubly reinforces that we owe him, out of justice, our love.
So we begin by recognizing the love is not given according to need, but according to justice, and amongst humans need can be factored in, but in God it cannot. But all who bear the image of God are owed love, insofar as they participate in the Image of God, whether they “need it” or not. As St. John teaches, we cannot love God and hate our neighbor without being a liar and still in the dark.
But let’s hone in on, and habituate in our mind, that we love God, not because of a need in Him, nor a need in ourselves, but entirely for His own sake. Isn’t that what love is? Being totally swept up in the Other that we forget about ourselves? And the benefit for us as a side effect to this good disposition is that we become righteous, good, just people.
Photo: Ben White, Unsplash / PD-US
