One day, Charlie Brown, the cartoon character, is trying to write a letter to a girl. Snoopy watches sympathetically. Charlie says: “I just don’t know how to write a love letter. What can you say to a girl that shows you really like her?” In the next frame, Snoopy thinks: “Enclosed please find a cookie.” Would that it were that simple to show love for one another.

The bottom line is that love, used in scripture, is an action, not a feeling. Love means willing and doing the good for the other. A simple definition, one that is difficult to enact.

Jesus’ opponents just won’t give up! Last week, they attempted to trip him up on the sticky question of taxes to Caesar. Today’s passage is a cunning attempt to lead him into a hair-splitting debate over the details of the Mosaic Law.

Matthew sets the scene well! A Pharisee asks Jesus which of the commandments is the greatest. Jesus’ response does not seek to set aside the Law, but rather to interpret it more fully. For Jesus, the greatest commandment is found in Deuteronomy: You shall love the Lord, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength (6:5).

Jesus’ answer emphasizes the centrality of love – a cord that binds together the human heart and soul and directs us toward God.

While asked for only one commandment, Jesus adds a second, quoting from Leviticus, which he says is equal to and inseparable from the first: You shall love your neighbor as yourself (19:18). Everything, he says, hangs on these two interrelated commandments. Like a door on two hinges that will not open or close properly if one is out of alignment, so, too, our lives will not work out properly if we do not love God and our neighbor. Jesus is not discounting any other commandments, but simply emphasizing that these two are foundational.

So, what does this declaration mean for us today? As we struggle to live the Christian life, we can easily fall into the trap of believing that Christian love is a feeling. However, Christian love means action, something we do. In fact, if you cannot enumerate what you have done for the other, it means that you have not loved. Sometimes, it may seem easier to love God than to love our neighbor. But, as Jesus proclaims, these two loves cannot be separated.

By linking this Gospel with a practical first reading from Exodus, we are reminded that this love is more than a warm, fuzzy feeling, more than giving someone a few cookies as Snoopy advises. Loving God means prayer and worshipping God; loving neighbor results in our outreach to others. Both are tied together. Worship without love of neighbor or outreach to one’s neighbor without worship of God breaks the equation.

Here is the hard reality. The more we focus on ourselves and our own needs, the less we will love God and love others. The more time we spend on taking care of what we want, the less time will be spent on what God wants. The more we serve ourselves, the less we will serve God and others. How many ways can we express that reality?

The words of Jesus sound so very true and very beautiful. Transferring those words into concrete, practical reality will challenge us. Some are up for the challenge; some make excuses for not facing the challenge; others don’t bother; still others make sure that they love God and love their neighbor.