19-Aug-16

Gospel MT 22:34-40

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
they gathered together, and one of them,
a scholar of the law, tested him by asking,
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
He said to him,
“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart,
with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Reflection:
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
Jesus tells us that all religious law, and the teaching of the prophets, depend on our "loving" God and others.
"Love" is not an inactive word.
Love is an emotion that generates a corresponding emotion.
If I say I love God or another person and I don't "feel" anything, I am just kidding myself.
I should "feel" harmonious and at peace with God and those I love as a consequence of my love for them.
However, although I may love, I may not always be "loving" because I am only human,
I can be angry, resentful, jealous and extremely stubborn.
The result of indulging these negative feelings toward others is that I am left feeling miserable and bitter.
These disturbing emotions are the sign-posts that "show" me how I have allowed myself to drift away from love.
Love is not like a light switch that I can turn on in church and then, when I get to the parking lot, switch off and go into a rage when someone parked next to me opens their car door and carelessly allows it to dent my car.
For me, loving God and loving others will always be a life-long effort of trying to overcome myself.
"Lord: Give us loving hearts today with all whom we meet, both those whom we serve and those whom we serve with, so that we may fulfill our mission to bring your love and hope into the world."
- - From the My Brother's Keeper Morning Prayer.