To the editor:
Dave Kuhle pointed out (Catholic Herald Mailbag, February 3 issue) that Christ’s commandment to love one’s neighbor was not new because, under God’s direction, Moses prescribed this same commandment in the Old Testament book of Leviticus Lv 19:18. This is true as far as it goes, but misleading, because Christ spelled this out in detail, which was new.
To the editor:
From the time I was in parochial school 50 years ago, I believed that Jesus replaced the old laws with new laws and gave us two new commands: to love God and one another. But I was wrong.
We frequently hear sermons at Mass that Jesus gave us new commandments, and in Tony Magliano’s article in the December Catholic Herald, regarding what Jesus would do if he were here today. Magliano wrote, “. . . consider John 13:34. Here, Jesus says: ‘I give you a new commandment: love one another.’” Magliano writes that Jesus’ commandment to love one another is new, and is vastly better than the old commandments which required an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.
But a thorough understanding of John 13:34 reveals that when Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment: love one another,” he did not recite a new commandment, but quoted a 1,200 year old passage prescribed by Moses in Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”
