Gospel

‘You shall love the Lord your God and your neighbour as yourself.’
Matthew 22:34–40

At that time: When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.’

The Gospel of the Lord

God, a Person

God is the source, and we are His expression. To know Him is to love Him so that we may love one another. Two commandments in one, leading us into communion, to seeing Him in everything and in everyone. To a fullness in which the measure is no longer our calculations, but the absence of them. Between “loving you as myself” and “loving you as God loves me”, there is trust in Him, there is vulnerability in me, there is wonder at you… In short, there is intimacy with the God who created the cosmos, with my God, who is a person just as I am.
And God, who is He to you?

Applied to Married Life

Jonathan and Martha are praying together as husband and wife, in the presence of the Lord.
Jonathan: Lord, thank You, because before I knew things about You, but I did not know You. Today I know that You are a Person who knows me, listens to me and loves me personally. Thank You for Martha, because in giving myself to her, I discover how You give Yourself to me. You teach me that loving is not about seeking my own good, but desiring hers, to the point of giving myself for her. Thank You for teaching me to love as You love!
Martha: Lord, thank You because You live with me, You look at me and desire what is good for me. Thank You because I experience Your Love through Jonathan, especially when he loves me even when I do not deserve it. The more I know You, the more I discover who he is to You. Teach me to love him without keeping score, regardless of how he treats me, with the Love I receive from You. Thank You because, in giving myself to him, I encounter You!
Jonathan: Lord, how wonderful! The more we love You, the more we love one another! And the more we give ourselves to each other, the more we come to know You.
Martha: Thank You, Lord, because You have not simply called us to fulfil two commandments, but to live in one communion of Love with You and with each other. Amen.

Mother,
Show me Your Son; I want to know Him. May He be blessed and praised for ever, for He redeemed us with His Blood.