Going All The Way

Moses spoke to the people, saying:
"Fear the LORD, your God,
and keep, throughout the days of your lives,
all his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you,
and thus have a long life.
Hear then, Israel, and be careful to observe them,
that you may grow and prosper the more,
in keeping with the promise of the LORD, the God of your fathers,
to give you a land flowing with milk and honey.

"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! 
Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God,
with all your heart,
and with all your soul,
and with all your strength. 
Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today."

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
"Which is the first of all the commandments?" 
Jesus replied, "The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these." 

The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
'He is One and there is no other than he.'
And 'to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself'
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him,
"You are not far from the kingdom of God." And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

There is nothing easier to do than to love God. Well, let me rephrase that.  There is nothing easier to do than to pretend to love God. After all, God has a good press agent, He is genuinely good, forgiving, patient and kind so what is there not to love?  We can spend hours on our knees telling God how much we love Him.  Tears of joy can flow from our eyes and form a puddle on the ground as we contemplate the beauty of God.  Then, we go our way and forget that the people all around us are formed in the image and likeness of God and because of the image burned into them at their conception, they too are worthy of our love.  This is an easy thing to do with the people who agree with us.  Agree with me in all I say and do and you and I will be best friends forever!  But, life is seldom like this. We meet all sorts of people during the time we are here on earth and some of them are likable while some of them are, to borrow a term from the Britts, just plain rotters, which means that they are a cruel, stingy, and unkind type of a person.  We have to love them too.  They too are our neighbor.  What about all of the mad mullahs in ISIS? Do we have to love them too?  The answer for the Christian man and woman is, "yes" we do.  How do we do this?  How do we love them or how do we those around us that have taken an active dislike for us?  It is not easy to do.  We have to look deeply for the image of God in these people.  Sometimes we will have to take it on faith that the image is there because they have managed to bury it deep inside their troubled soul. 

Strangers and terrorists aside, it can also be hard to see the image of God in our family members because we are so familiar with all of their foibles and we stand ready to correct them.  Sometimes, love will mean letting go.  I have two sisters and one brother and I love them desperately but for reasons only they know, they have chosen to leave me outside of their lives.  This was eating me up inside and was affecting my spiritual life.  I wrote to each of them expressing my love and I released them from worrying about me.  I did not do it in a mean or angry manner, I just gave them their freedom.  I told them that if they did not want me in their lives, it was okay and that I respected their privacy and their decision and that they were still loved by me and I would continue to pray for them and that I would be there if they needed me.  I miss them, of course,  but then again, I missed them before I sent the letters to them.  To date, they have not replied nor have they even attempted to contact me in any way so I guess they took me at my word.   God bless them and keep them happy. 

Loving God is easy, loving my neighbor who drops garbage all over when taking it out, who takes "my" parking space, who plays loud music all hours of the day and night, he is hard to love!  But we must put aside our animosity and pray and love him or her into the family of God.  The challenge in this world is to apply the love we feel for God to those around us.  As the popular song says. "God is great, beer is good and people are crazy!"  

Have a good week and remember to pray for the Poor Souls in Purgatory.