When Jesus was asked which of the commandments was most important, he replied that we should love God and love our neighbor. He added that on these two commandments hang all the Law and the prophets. He might have added that on these two things hang everything that matters to everyone everywhere.
Most importantly, it is the love of God and the love of our neighbor that matters if we take our Christian faith seriously. All the rules and regulations and rubrics, all the debates and doctrines and dogmas are meaningless if we do not have the love of God and the love of our neighbor.
It is a quirk of human nature, however, that most of us fall into one of two categories. We are either “God lovers” or “people lovers.” If you like, all of us have a natural preference or a built-in instinct to focus on one or the other.
Good stuff!
I enjoy Fr. Longenecker’s blog “Standing on my Head”.
I agree Alice Linsley, good stuff indeed.
Sad to say, I must be one of Fr. Longenecker’s “people lovers”, and unfortunately, unlike him, I don’t prioritize the two great commands, nor do I assume that because someone likes fine liturgy (maybe even prefers Latin in the liturgy) that person is more blessed than the one who attends an informal Mass and works with the drug addicts, prostitutesm and abused women and children. Fr. Longenecker believes that the “God lovers” because of their finely tuned aesthetic senses and their sense of moral superiority trump the “people lovers”. As I understand Jesus, we are to love both God and one another – in fact, we can’t really say we love God if we despise our brothers (I think you’ll find that sentiment both in the Gospel of John and in the 1st letter of John.) Dorothy Day and the early Catholic workers loved the Mass and attended daily if they could. They also understood that their love of the Lord of the Mass compelled them to work with the down and out and destitute of New York’s Bowery. Sadly, Fr. Longenecker falls into a kind of Protestant reasoning which sees contradiction in matters which require both-and kind of thinking.
I didn’t know until now that Fr. Longenecker was once Anglican and was ordained as a Catholic priest in 2006.
Dan, I don’t read anywhere in Fr. Longnecker’s essay that he believes that “God lovers” trump “People lovers” with any sense of moral superiority, or better aesthetic sensibilities. He even states that the Church needs both, but it’s a [i]matter of priorities[/i]. As C.S. Lewis observed in [i]Mere Christianity[/i], it’s those who aim for Heaven who most often do the greatest work on Earth.
I completely agree with you that we are commanded to love God, and others; but, I think that Fr. Longnecker is speaking to the movement within the Church (and by that I mean the Church Universal, not just the RCC) that takes the Social Gospel to its logical extreme, and focuses on winning the temporal world at the expense of striving for the ultimate prize of Heaven. Please understand me, I don’t mean to disparage a healthy attention to making the lot of our fellow sojourners on Earth better, especially “the least of these.” But, I do think that one cannot truly, fully love others as God really wants us to love them without [i]first loving God without reservation, without hesistation, in complete submission to His will[/i]. And, I think that for many “conservatives” AND “liberals” within the Church, their first priority is not loving God and seeking to do His will, it’s loving whatever more comfortable surrogates they choose to love, and pursuing works righteousness, whether that be some modern conservative legalism, or liberal social works. It’s the age-old problem of our sin nature, and our desire to run after idols that allow us to have it OUR way, rather than lovingly submit to God’s sovereignty.
I think that your example of Dorothy Day and her love of worship compelling her to minister to the poor is a perfect example of the prioritizing and synthesis that Our Lord calls us to do.
#3 That is not what Fr. Longenicker said. It is not so effective to interprete something when that something is immediately posted above for easy comparison.
I disagree with Fr. Longenecker’s dichotomy. I remember the days as a young RC when my elders were overly overtly religious with all of the trappings but weren’t “People Lovers” at all. I think that day is long gone and most folks strike a good balance.
Interestingly enough, I just posted an essay elsewhere that included a reflection on the Two Greatest Commandments. I find the second especially difficult, not because I can’t give to others but because I find difficulty receiving. I don’t think we consider enough that the second command means that there are many other people who are called to love US as they love themselves. To do so, they must be in some sort of relationship with us, have things to offer us and we must be open to them if we are going to build God’s Kingdom! Unfortunately, we seem to have become very insular and exclusive with our time and our relationships.
#6 Perhaps Fr. Longenecker should have expressed himself more clearly – #5 I would not disagree with you that aiming for heaven can often lead one to doing something great for God among the neediest of his children. I would suggest however that there is an inherent problem about aiming for heaven alone – and again, I would urge those who think that they can love God while ignoring (or worse) their brethren don’t know what loving God is. (1 John 4.11)
Well, let’s pause for a moment and broaden this discussion. In my experience it’s quite possible to categorize congregations the same way that Fr. Longenecker does individuals. Some congregations tend to emphasize the vertical dimension, the love of God, while others tend to stress the horizontal dimension, the love of neighbors, although any church worthy of the name will include both elements and not neglect either one.
But I think more can be said. I think the normal and predictable tendency is for long-established congregations to become more and more horizontally oriented over time. It’s as natural as water running downhill. That is, churches are usually started in the first place and people tend to join a church initially because they are on a spiritual quest and the congregation meets their spiritual needs. They like the worship, or the programming for themselves or their kids, or the pastor, or whatever. But then they form friendships within the parish, and as those relationships grow stronger over time, they often end up staying in that church long after it no longer suits them so well spiritually. Perhaps that’s after a change of pastors, or their kids grow up and don’t need the programs for children and youth anymore, or the individuals have simply outgrown what the church has to offer, or they come to disagree with its stand on something big issue. It happens all the time. People move on in their spiritual journey, but they stay in the same church, for the sake of those cherished relationships.
In other words, the categories aren’t static. Often people who start out as “God lovers” become primarily “people lovers” over time, and sometimes vice versa. And it’s even more common for congregations to move from a vertical to a horizontal emphasis over time.
But I wholeheartedly agree with Fr. Dwight Longenecker that it’s essential to keep the priorities straight. We are not only called to love God first and foremost, and then, as a close second, to love our neighbors as ourselves. No, we’re also called to love God in a radical, total way that we would be idolatrous if we loved other people to the same degree. The Great Commandment is to love God with ALL our heart, mind, soul, and strength, holding nothing back. We aren’t called to love our fellow human beings in that ultimate way, but only as we love ourselves, or as Christ loved us. But God is a jealous God, who demands our exclusive devotion. He won’t suffer any rivals for the unreserved love and obedient service that rightly belongs to him alone.
David Handy+
Jesus said all the Law and the Prophets hang (or “depends” – a form of pendant) from these commandments. The Law is the Torah, which is better understood as instruction or guidance, and refers to the direction the people should walk. The Prophets are a hedge of protection around the holiness of the Torah.
Since Jesus says there are two commandments from which the divine guidance hangs, I suppose Jesus imagined the Law and the Prophets as a door pivoting on two hinges.
Formerly I was a cabinetmaker and I can tell you it doesn’t make much difference whether a top or bottom hinge is broken. Either way the door won’t work (show the way). I think the point Jesus was making is that love of God and love of neighbor are inseparable.
Mig+ [#10], your two-hinges metaphor is wonderful.