Satan has effectively used a very clever device to silence the law which is needed as an instrument to bring perishing men to Christ. He has suggested that the law and love are irreconcilable enemies; they are opposites. If they are in conflict, men will obviously choose love and spurn law; for no one would dare to despise love. Thus, the Wicked One has declared that love is independent of law and contrary to it.
Precisely the opposite is declared by Holy Scripture. Law and love are mutually affinitive. Jesus plainly taught that the law was urging men to nothing but love. The righteous commandments may be summarized as:
Thou shalt love the Lord they God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. And thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matt 22:37-40
The law is neither more nor less than an elucidation of the demands of love.
In the same manner our Lord defined love by reference to the law. The repetition on this point is striking. 'If ye love me, keep my commandments' (John 14:15). 'He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me' (John 14:21). Love cannot be expressed without the guidelines of law, and law cannot be kept spiritually except by the motivation of love.
Chantry, Today's Gospel
Precisely the opposite is declared by Holy Scripture. Law and love are mutually affinitive. Jesus plainly taught that the law was urging men to nothing but love. The righteous commandments may be summarized as:
Thou shalt love the Lord they God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. And thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matt 22:37-40
The law is neither more nor less than an elucidation of the demands of love.
In the same manner our Lord defined love by reference to the law. The repetition on this point is striking. 'If ye love me, keep my commandments' (John 14:15). 'He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me' (John 14:21). Love cannot be expressed without the guidelines of law, and law cannot be kept spiritually except by the motivation of love.
Chantry, Today's Gospel
