“Love does no evil to a neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the Law” (Rom 13:10).
Can we really command someone to love? If love were just an emotion, the answer would be no. But Scripture shows us that love is a gift from God — a way of willing the good of the other. When we love in this way, we do no harm to our neighbor, and in doing so, we fulfill the entire law.
Paul, in his Letter to the Romans, from which today’s Word of Life is taken, describes precisely the relationship between the Law and love, affirming that love is the fulfillment of the Law. Shortly before, he revealed the source of this love: “God proves his love for us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”¹ The First Letter of John also says: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”²
“Love does no evil to a neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the Law.”
None of us can give what we do not have. Saint Augustine understood this well when, addressing God directly, he said: “Give what you command, and command what you will.”³ We have received the priceless gift of God’s love, and we are called not to hold it back, but to pass it on. From being recipients of God’s love, we can become its agents. From being loved, we are called to become lovers, thus participating in the very life of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – the Lover, the Beloved, and Love itself. We owe no one anything else, Paul assures us, except this mutual love, “for one who loves another has fulfilled the Law.”⁴
“Love does no evil to a neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the Law.”
“True love of neighbor,” says Chiara Lubich, “does no harm. It enables us to live all of God’s commandments, without exception, since their primary objective is to help us avoid all forms of evil, both toward ourselves and toward our neighbors.”⁵ Understood in this way, the commandments of the Law become, more than an obligation, a gift of God’s love. They do not constrain our love but set it free in its fullness.
“Love does no evil to a neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the Law.”
To reach this “fulfillment,” the first step in loving our neighbor is not to harm them. But then we need to be creative in loving. “It is not enough not to harm our neighbor,” Pope Francis reminded us, “we have to choose to do good, seizing opportunities to give good witness that we are disciples of Jesus.”⁶
How, then, can we live this Word of life? Let’s put love back at the center of our lives. Let’s love others concretely as Jesus would love them, and his is the fullness of love, wholly given to God and to humanity. From him we can learn the highest measure of love.
“Love does no evil to a neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the Law.”
Doris, a young woman from Scotland, tells us: “During our regular visits to a homeless shelter, I enter a world very different from my own. I know that what I feel doesn’t matter so much; what matters is to love the people. One day, a man with deep sadness on his face confided in me that he felt ready to end it all, that he just wanted to die. I simply listened to him, then we shared a sandwich and a cup of coffee. I realized that listening and being present was already a way to show love. When it was time to leave, he hugged me tightly and smiled, saying that what we were doing here was very important, not just for him, but for all the others, too. I felt the incredible power of love.
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Prepared by Claudio Cianfaglioni and the Word of Life team