In the later part of the 7th century, there was a very holy monk and Doctor of the Church by the name of St. Bede, the Venerable. And, while meditating upon this same Gospel we have today, in his own homily, he said the following: “Perfect love is that by which we are ordered to love the Lord with our whole heart, our whole soul and our whole strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. Neither of these [two kinds of] love, he says, is capable of being perfect without the other, because God cannot be loved apart from our neighbor, nor our neighbor apart from God.”

There does not seem to be a better summary and explanation of these great commandments of God, because, if you think about it, we never truly come to know God, unless it is from our neighbor, from our early childhood instilled with His love from our parents, and then later from Catechists, laypersons, priests, nuns and bishops and we can never truly love all of our neighbors unless we have the strength from God to do so.

It sounds very circular and even a bit strange, that God is both the source and end of our love, but think of it this way, before our first parents separated us from Him by their sin, they experienced a love like no other, union with God in an unimaginable degree, Heaven on earth. Yet, when everything fell apart, there still remained that desire to return to that perfect love and so even though God still bestows His love upon us, we are still searching for that perfect love, the one St. Augustine recognized when he said: “our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” The one we catch glimmers of in our own prayer or the one we sometimes see in others, since, indeed, we are made in His image and His likeness. The one that, it seems, St. Bede captured so well.

And, though there are stories of countless saints who have done this, it was St. Maximilian Kolbe who demonstrates it so strongly. A Polish Franciscan Friar who was arrested and brought to a Nazi concentration camp.

The story goes that someone from his barracks had escaped, and in order to deter further attempts, 10 men from those same barracks were chosen to be starved to death. St. Maximilian watched as one of those men who were chosen cried out and lamented that he was married and had a family. St. Maximilian then went to the guard and asked if he could take his place, which he did. The man survived and St. Maximilian, because he would not starve, was given a lethal injection.

It is no wonder then that in his article on spiritual combat, he said: “Genuine love rises above creatures and soars up to God. In him, by him and through him, he says, it loves all men, both good and wicked, friends and enemies.”

And that is the point, true love, perfect love is God, is found in Him, with Him and through Him, and it is how, as strange as it sounds, we love Him so completely, because He not only loves us but shows us how to love. And, by doing so, we are able to love our neighbor, whomever that may be, whether friend, foe or family.

This is why it is these that are the greatest commandments and why Jesus Himself summarized 10 into 2, because, in the end, as St. Bede reminds: “God cannot be loved apart from our neighbor, nor our neighbor apart from God.”