The greatest commandment

During our adventure in Murphys yesterday for the Day of the Dead festivities, Sarah and I had a few minutes of one-on-one “grownup talk”.   At one point I told her that my ‘job’ is to help her mother (and all of my family) to get to Heaven. And vice versa. I personally think I have the easier job. I sometimes make is very difficult for them.  It’s something I thought about again today after hearing the Gospel of Mark when Jesus is asked by a Scribe “What is the greatest commandment?”

His answer is to ask the Scribe the same question.  The Scribe gets it half-right at first. He says the first and greatest Commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  But Jesus goes on to give us the second most important Commandment.  “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 

I think it’s rather obvious that loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strenghth is the greatest Commandment because how are you going to love your neighbor unless you love God?  God is perfect love.  Love of neighbor hinges on whether you love God with your whole being.  Only when you love God can that love overflow into other relationships.

Loving God with your whole self is, in my opinion anyway, the best way to also love yourself.  We were made for love and communion with God.  Loving God is not some extra favor we do for God; rather, it’s a way of fulfilling the deepest meaning of who we are.  We are made for love and we are made for God.  So, it stands to reason that loving God is the best way to love yourself.

From this starting point, we then move to a better understanding of how we are called to love our neighbor.  If the fulfillment of loving yourself is found by loving God and being in an intimate relationship of love with God, then you love your neighbor as yourself by drawing your neighbor into a relationship of love with God also.  There is nothing you could do that is more loving for others than to act as a bridge between them and God.  And the more directly you act as that bridge, the greater your love for them and the more completely you fulfill this Commandment.

"Love is our origin, love is our constant calling, love is our fulfillment in heaven."  These words are taken from the Preface of the Mass for weddings. Something there is within us of God as our origin and we need little explanation about our calling.  We need encouragement to keep learning, keep trying again and again to fulfill our deepest desires to be loved and to live in that holy land of loving others.

I recognize my marriage as my absolute duty, privilege and honor.  I hope the love I have and profess for Marilyn is a good example for my children as well as others.  Love is contagious, and it must consume everything we are and everything we do.  A heart full of love leaves no room for hate.