"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."
Today we see a wise man speaking with Christ about the greatest commandments. We are told that God is above all and that nothing is to come before God. The second is to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Then we get the great line above from the wise man. So how does this tie into our daily lives? Well it is pretty straight forward and it is all tied together in the end of the Gospel today!
In our world we put so many things above God, in fact we put people above God without even realizing it. Actors, Sports players, money, alcohol drugs, cars, materials are all above God in our world today. Now obviously some of the mentioned above are not with everyone. Well in the Scripture today, we are told that this is not acceptable. God is to come before all things, even those that are good! Now looking at your own daily ways or weekly ways, how many times do you skip Mass for something? How many times do you have a chance to go to Adoration or take a few minutes to pray, but say, "Oh I have to get this and this done" or "I will pray later on tonight" but never get to it. Let us face the fact that our society and our world has become subject to the materials that we own or should I say the materials that own us. Jesus is telling us to take a step back and to really put an effort towards putting God first! Think about it, without God waking you up this morning, you would not be enjoying that cup of coffee or using that gift of technology to read this blog. Let us take due time and offer a little portion of our day to God who gave us everything that we put in front of Him.
Not only are we told to love God and spend time with Him, but to do it with our entire being. God should be the driving force behind everything we do. God gives us every bit of Himself everyday and so why can we not do the same in return? To love God fully means that you will STRIVE (you will never be perfect) to be perfect. To make the right decisions in a moral and just situation, to follow the quiet movements of your heart, and to be courageous enough to stand up for what you believe in through the teachings of the Church. It is putting our own desires aside and jumping into God's boat with both feet, trusting that His way really is the best way and His way is the way in which you will experience the glory and joy of God's love.
Now here is where we begin to respond to Jesus in this Scripture. If we are wise, we listen and we follow what Jesus says... we also acknowledge that our brothers and sisters are all around us and they need to feel God's love just as much as we do. This means that we are to love them just as much as we love ourselves. We tend to believe that our life is Sacred, well the same mindset needs to go into loving our neighbors, yes even when they annoy us or anger us. You are not called to like everyone, but you are called to love them with a Christ like love. This doesn't mean you do not have to call them out or get them on the right path, I mean look at Jesus, he continually called sinners and His followers onto a deeper level of holiness. To love your neighbor, simply answer Jesus the way the wise man answered.... Love God with your entire being and you will be able to love your neighbors the way God loves.
Now here is the kicker... If we are wise enough and ask God for strength to follow him and to live like this, Jesus tells us where we will end up at the time of our earthly death and our spiritual birth. Jesus says at the end of this Gospel, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God" If we listen to these commandments and follow Jesus and love God above everything and one, we love each other, we will be in heaven! This is how to reach the Kingdom of God! The secret people is to learn how to love from God. How do we do that? We put God above everything and one and we practice by loving our neighbors everyday!
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