“Not every one that saith to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Many will say to me in that day: ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and cast out devils in thy name, and done many miracles in thy name?’ And then will I profess unto them, ‘I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.’”
It is said of St. John, in his final years, that he would be carried before the people and say, “Brethren, love one another.” When questioned why the disciple who inclined on Jesus’ breast, wrote five books of the Bible, including a Gospel, and was present at the foot of the cross did not give more than this, he answered, “Because it is enough.” You can build up an extraordinary list of dazzling, saintly deeds and practices, and if you leave your neighbor unloved, you have missed the entire point of the gospel: “A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another” (John 13:34-35). This is the commandment Jesus gave, not a mission, not a method of prayer, not a list of books written or read, no virtues cultivated, but that you love one another: “Dearly beloved, I write not a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning” (1 John 2:7); “For this is the commandment, that, as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in the same” (2 John 1:6). If you ever find yourself asking yourself what God is asking of you at any particular moment, the answer is simpler than people make it out to be: Love. Ah, the endless number of shapes love can take, yet it is so simple. Dear Theophila, if you are prepared for the three days of darkness but do not love your neighbor, then you have gone astray: “For leaving the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men” (Mark 7:8). This is the will of your Father, not some secret, “I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I have not said to the seed of Jacob: Seek me in vain” (Isaias 45:19), but to do the greatest act of love that you see in front of you at every given moment. It is not a trick that requires great discernment; rather it is simplicity itself. Therefore, while in the last verses Jesus says that sound doctrine and a right heart must be present for good works, he shows that true belief is not enough if it is accompanied by an unloving life. When Love Himself comes to judge based on the love with which one lived, He will not be awed by the greatness of your work or any of your accomplishments, for He is not awed by accomplishments, but rejoices in the love with which they were done. O blessed simplicity, simplicity that makes the voice of God always present with one simple exchange: “Lovest thou me? …Feed my lambs” (John 21:16), feed the people He loves with His own love. The people that did much work with no love will point to their list of work, but “we are all become as one unclean, and all our justices as the rag of a menstruous woman” (Isaias 64:6); any action done without love is an empty work, to be discarded as something stained: “If I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3). Without the Eternal I Love You present in your soul, and His Spirit of Love not animating you, you cannot truly love, thus the phrase “I never knew you” uses the same word for “knew” as in the statement: “And Adam knew Eve his wife” (Genesis 4:1). O divine intimacy! O two in one flesh, Jesus Christ so alive in your soul that the two are one: “For you are dead; and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3)! O animating love, o divine Spirit, that gives the gift of love: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear… but of love” (2 Timothy 1:7)! Do you know your Savior? Do you know Jesus as intimately as a spouse, always knowing and doing what is pleasing to Him? “He that sent me, is with me, and he hath not left me alone: for I do always the things that please him” (John 8:29). Ah, how clear Jesus is on His feelings on any work done without love, that it is not just empty, but iniquity. “Do all that is in thy heart: for God is with thee” (1 Paralipomenon 17:2), love and express love however you have a mind, “Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly: for neither work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge shall be in hell, whither thou art hastening” (Ecclesiastes 9:10), but do it with a fiery, living love that leaves every person you meet happier than when they found you: “For the joy of the Lord is our strength” (2 Esdras 8:10). Live on love, with a mind always to the love of the Trinity, and you will do the will of your heavenly Father at all times.