In today's gospel for mass we hear the all too familiar passage where Jesus is asked about what the greatest commandment is. He responds "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30) That's easy enough, right? Well, guess what? That's not enough!
Jesus goes on to say "The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:31). That's where things get tough!!
It's easy to love God. It's easy to go to church on Sundays and feel good that we're doing what we think God is asking us to do in our worship of Him. But, as Jesus points out, we need to take our love of God to those in our lives. This isn't always easy in our human relationships. There are people in our lives that are not very likable, let alone lovable. But we are called to love them as we love God.
There are those in our families we may not want to have anything to do with. Or there are those on our job that we may feel are jerks! Or there are those in public office that we may LOVE TO HATE!! Guess what? God is asking us to LOVE them as we love Him. He's not asking us to like them. He's asking us to love them. And while we're at it, we should pray for those that we may not want to love, let alone to like. If we pray for all the people in our lives, those we find easy to love, and those we find it hard to love, this world would be on the path of becoming a better place.
Very apt - there've been people in my life that I've loved quite a bit, including one in particular who I loved more than I loved my own life. But there's others the definitely create the challenge that you describe.
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