The Unity of Love for God and For Neighbor

Ascending from our most simple obligations to our highest, we rise to their apex - our obligations in relationship to God.

According to the clear, precise directions of the Holy Scripture, our main obligation to God is to love Him. This commandment was expressed in the Old Testament with the words, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ said of this command, "This is the first and greatest commandment."

To this commandment of God's law, our Savior bound a second - love for neighbor. He said of this commandment that it is "like unto the first," that is, love for neighbor is like love for God. The Holy Church, being founded on the words of the Lord, has always set forth the following order in the moral obligations of man: lowest of all are the obligations to oneself. Therefore, love for oneself must be sacrificed in the name of love for God and neighbor. Love for one's neighbor takes precedence over love for oneself, but it is subject to the highest love - love for God Whom we must love most of all.

There is a contemporary theory that great love for God hinders one's love for neighbors. The proponents of this theory claim that man must make the relationship with neighbors his primary concern. By this,