Dear Friends in Christ,
Jesus’ words in this Sunday’s Gospel resound in our hearts “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Jesus then adds “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
These teachings of Jesus are often referred two as The Greatest Commandment. In Jesus’ own life, He lived the Greatest Commandment perfectly. If we are honest with ourselves, we live it very imperfectly.
What does it mean to love God with ALL of ourselves? The saints understood this as they placed God above all other goods in their lives. Their gift of their entire selves to God was lived in joy and trust. They understood that nothing was more important than God and their friendship with
God meant everything to them.
What does it mean to love our neighbor as ourselves? In recent weeks, the images of suffering broadcast to us from the Middle East are troubling. We have seen people inphysical pain, mental anguish and in need of the basic necessities of life. Though these people live a world away
from us, do we care about their situation? Do we see the poor and those in need among us? Let us think: If we were suffering, how would we want to be treated? What would we need? How would we hope that people would respond to us? Our prayerful reflection upon these questions can
help us to “love our neighbor as ourselves.”
In Jesus’ teaching, it is clear that love of God and neighbor is inseparable. When we take care of God’s people in need, we show God that we love Him. Our commitment to a regular, daily prayer life makes our friendship with God grow so that we become able to give more and more of ourselves to Him.
Let us consider the Greatest Commandment as one of the most important teachings Jesus has given us.
In Christ,
Fr. Michael