(Given at the 4 pm Saturday Mass, the 9 am and 11:30 am Sunday Masses at Ave Maria)
Love of God and love of neighbor. The ten commandments can be broken down into these two commandments. The first three: you shall not have any other god before me, you shall keep holy the sabbath, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, focus on love of God. The last seven, you shall not kill, steal, bear false witness, etc. focus on love of neighbor. For us as Christians, these are still binding. We don’t put other gods before Jesus Christ. We don’t take his name in vain. We go to Mass on Sunday, the new sabbath, and keep this day holy to the Lord. We don’t kill, steal, commit adultery, etc. The ten commandments for us as Christians are the bare minimum in fact. We are called by Christ and are enabled by him to do even better than the ten commandments. To go above and beyond. Not just to avoid the negative, but to do the positive. Love of God and neighbor means for us to not just avoid evil but to live in good works. Ephesians 2:10 states, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” The grace of Jesus Christ which we received at baptism enables us to do good and to bear much fruit. And it is Christ himself working within and through us. Philippians 2:13 states, “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” We cooperate with God’s grace and thus can live holy and godly lives. We can love God and love neighbor as God himself does. All by grace. We can’t do it on our own. Without Jesus, we will always fall short. Without Jesus, the good we do on a natural level means nothing. But with Jesus, by grace, our good works are meritorious and pleasing before God. Not because we are trying to earn his love like, if I have 51 good works outweighing 49 bad works at the end of my life, then I’m good. Nope. False. God calls us to be in right relationship with him and to preserve that grace within us until our dying breath. If we fall short, as you’ve heard me say before, we go to Confession. We get back up. Love of God and neighbor aren’t some superficial hallmark greeting card ideals. No, these two commandments are our very life as Christians.