“…a scholar of the law tested him by asking,

‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’

He said to him,

‘You shall love the Lord, your God,

with all your heart,

with all your soul,

and with all your mind.

This is the greatest and the first commandment.

The second is like it:

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 

The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.’”

I grew up with an almost inherent understanding from my family that truth was important (as was beauty and freedom). When found, truth was worth orienting your life around. Aunts and uncles, and eventually cousins, varied in how they perceived truth, but almost all were passionate in pursuing the truth in which they believed. This led, occasionally, to very poignant and deep conversations about how to live. It was a great influence on me. In high school, I read Houston Smith’s The Religions of Man (and later reread the revised and renamed The World’s Religions). I took a comparative religions class in college and, in seminary, while the focus was overwhelmingly on Catholic theology, there was attention paid to inter religious and inter faith dialogues. In my own search for truth and journey of faith, I had a profound encounter of God’s love through my classmates on my senior retreat in high school and came to understand, at least in seed form, the idea that God is love. I would later experience the freedom that infinite love can bring, the healing that eternal love provides, and the beauty of divine love seen in human love. 

My favorite architect is Frank Lloyd Wright (at one point, I had wanted to be an architect). In architecture, it is a common maxim that form follows function. In other words, the form or design of a building should conform to the function or activities within that building. Wright had a different maxim. He said, “Form and function are one.” In other words, there is a radical unity between a building and its function. They cannot be taken as separate things. In this sense, I came to believe that truth is love and love is truth (beyond the differentiated maxim, the truth in love). I also believe that being/existence, itself, is love (or communion), but that is for another article. This radical unity of truth and love was a lens by which I began to understand humanity and the very meaning of life. What does it mean to be human? I believe it is to love, to give and receive love. We get sidetracked by other values, but the one that leaves us with no regrets is love. Even as Tennyson said, “’Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” I was a bit enamored with Romanticism from late high school into my mid college years, but this idea of love as the core value and meaning of life has perdured. Love is truth and is the fundamental meaning and purpose of life. 

Today’s Gospel reveals the core value of Christianity and, indeed, Catholicism. The two greatest commandments, that sum up the law and the prophets and, actually, everything else, are to love God and love neighbor. This is true. It is the meaning and purpose of human life. It leaves us with no regrets. It is our true and high calling. God is love. He created and redeemed us in, for, and through love. We are meant to love as God has loved us. While many religions, philosophies, and world views propose others core values, I have come to trust that love is all in all and that we are made to, as Jesus commands, “Love one another as I have loved you.”