In our gospel for today we hear once again the confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees. They asked the Lord, "What is the greatest commandment?" Jesus answers very clearly that we are to love the Lord God with our whole heart, soul and mind." Then he adds, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Reflecting on these answers from the Lord, we can and should ask ourselves how well we are doing what the Lord clearly tells us we should be doing per the commandments.
We, as Catholic Christians, make every attempt to attend Sunday mass and give worship to God and to receive our Lord in Holy Communion. But I know for myself, I am easily distracted from what's happening at the altar with the other things that are happening in my life. Instead of placing my cares and concerns at the foot of the altar for the Lord to respond and help me with whatever issues I'm facing, I'm instead trying to resolve the problems myself while mass is going on. As a result, I'm missing out on what's happening at the Altar: Jesus becoming truly present in the bread and wine. As a follower of the Lord, I need to learn to place those concerns into God's hands and trust that He'll respond in a way that is best for me. This is the best way for me to show God that I love him with my whole heart, soul and mind.
The second part of Jesus' response is to love our neighbors as ourselves. That can be very challenging. There are people in our lives we truly love and find easy to do as Jesus commands, but then there are those people that get on our nerves and know how to "press our buttons." We are called to love those people as well. It may be best for our own emotional well-being to keep our distance from them, but we are to love them, nonetheless. We are to pray for them and their well-being, but it's okay to do it from the distance.
What are the challenges you face in responding to Jesus' command of love of God and love of neighbor? What are you doing to try to be obedient to what the Lord is teaching us?
During this upcoming week, in addition to worshiping and loving God as the Lord describes, maybe we can choose a person we find difficult to love and to pray for that person's intentions. This prayer may not only have positive effect on that person, but will certainly help us grow closer to God.
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