Christian Art | God Is Love | Love Your Neighbour
Office Of Readings | Christmastide | 3rd January | A Reading From Saint Augustine’s Treatises On Saint John | The Twin Commandments Of Love
‘The twin commandments of love.’
In this reading, Saint Augustine reflects on the two commandments on which, according to Christ, the whole of the Law and the prophets depend: love of God and love of neighbour. Augustine presents Christ as the teacher who brings these commandments into focus and shows their central place in the Christian life.
Augustine insists that these commandments must not be treated as occasional reminders but as truths constantly held in the heart. Love of God is to be total, engaging heart, soul and mind, and love of neighbour is to be measured by the same care one has for oneself. These two forms of love are inseparable and mutually dependent.
Augustine then makes an important distinction between teaching and practice. In teaching, love of God comes first, since God is the source of all love. In practice, however, love of neighbour comes first, because the neighbour is visible and present. God is not seen directly, but the way to God is opened through concrete acts of love towards others.
Augustine explains that love of neighbour purifies the inner vision. By learning to love what is seen, the believer becomes capable of loving what is unseen. He draws on the teaching of Saint John, who states that love of God cannot exist without love of one’s brother or sister. To dwell in love is already to dwell in God, because God Himself is love.
This love is not abstract. Augustine gives practical examples: feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, and treating relatives and dependants with respect. These actions are not secondary expressions of faith but part of the journey towards God.
Finally, Augustine describes the Christian life as a shared journey. God is the destination, but the neighbour is the companion already at one’s side. By supporting the neighbour along the way, the believer is also moving closer to God. Love of neighbour is therefore not a distraction from love of God, but the path by which it is learned and fulfilled.
A Reading From Saint Augustine’s Treatises On Saint John | The Twin Commandments Of Love
The Lord himself came, the Teacher of love, full of love, shortening the word upon the earth, as it was foretold that he would do. He showed that from the two precepts of love depend the whole of the Law and the prophets.
What are these two commandments? Join me, my brethren, in recollecting them. They ought to be thoroughly familiar to you and not just come into your mind when we recite them: they ought never to be blotted out from your hearts. Always and everywhere, bear in mind that you must love God and your neighbour, love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind; and love your neighbour as you would love yourself.
We must always ponder these words, meditate them, hold them in our minds, practise them and bring them to fruition. As far as teaching is concerned, the love of God comes first; but as far as doing is concerned, the love of our neighbour comes first. Whoever sets out to teach you these two commandments of love must not commend your neighbour to you first, and then God, but God first and then your neighbour. You, on the other hand, do not yet see God, but loving your neighbour will bring you that sight. By loving your neighbour you purify your eyes so that they are ready to see God, as John clearly says: If you do not love your brother, whom you see, how can you love God, whom you do not see?
You are told ‘Love God’. If you say to me ‘Show me whom I should love’, what can I say except what John says? No man has ever seen God. But you must not think yourself wholly unsuited to seeing God: God is love, says John, and whoever dwells in love dwells in God. So love whoever is nearest to you and look inside you to see where that love is coming from: thus, as far as you are capable, you will see God.
So start to love your neighbour. Share your bread with the hungry, bring the homeless pauper into your house. Clothe the naked, and do not despise the servants of your kin.
What will you get from doing all this? Your light will break forth like the dawn. Your light is your God, your dawn, because he will come to you to end the night of this world — he who, himself, neither rises nor sets but is eternal.
By loving your neighbour, by having care for your neighbour, you are travelling on a journey. Where are you journeying, except to the Lord God, whom we must love with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind? We have not yet reached the Lord, but our neighbour is with us already. So support your neighbour, who is travelling with you, so that you may reach him with whom you long to dwell.
Christian Prayer With Jesus Christ
Lord God,
you have taught us to love you
with all our heart, soul and mind,
and to love our neighbour as ourselves.
Give us grace to practise this love
in patience, generosity and care,
so that, walking together with others,
we may be led into your light
and come to dwell with you.
Amen
Glossary Of Christian Terms
Two commandments of love | The command given by Christ to love God with the whole person and to love one’s neighbour as oneself, presented as the foundation of all divine law.
Law and the prophets | A biblical expression referring to the whole of the Old Testament, understood by Christian tradition as fulfilled in Christ.
Love of God | The orientation of the whole person towards God in worship, obedience and desire, from which all other loves take their measure.
Love of neighbour | Practical care for others expressed in concrete actions, presented by Augustine as the necessary path by which love of God is learned and confirmed.
Neighbour | Any person encountered, without limitation by kinship, status or proximity, especially those in need.
Seeing God | A spiritual knowledge of God rather than physical sight, made possible through love and inner purification.
God is love | A scriptural affirmation from the First Letter of John expressing the very nature of God and the meaning of communion with him.
Purifying the eyes | A metaphor for the interior transformation brought about by love of neighbour, preparing the believer for knowledge of God.
Works of mercy | Concrete acts of charity such as feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless and clothing the naked, understood as expressions of love.
Journey | An image for the Christian life as a movement towards God, in which the neighbour accompanies and assists the believer.
Light | A biblical image for God’s presence and truth, associated with justice, love and the breaking in of divine grace.
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