Friday in the Third Week of Ordinary Time, March 8, 2024

Mark 12, 28-34

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.

We forget sometimes that love is hard work.  There are certainly moments of wonder, excitement, and the sheer joy of being close to the loved one and knowing oneself to be loved.  But there is also misunderstandings, separations, sickness, failures, and growth that require patience and perseverance if it is to last.  This is true as much in our love for God as for any spouse, parent, or child.  We can find it trying to love him when we are suffering.  We can find that we have drifted apart from him.  We might feel like giving up on loving God when our lives take sudden turns or when it seems the bottom has dropped out of them.  The Lord Jesus teaches us that  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”  This sounds like an eminently reasonable thing to do.  If God is almighty, if he is love, if he loves us so much that he sent his Son to die for us, of course we should love him with all our hearts, minds, and strength.  

To love God as he wants us to love him is a commandment because we need to be commanded to do it.  If it is not a commandment, then when we find it hard to love we would feel free to stop loving and to give in to self indulgence including despair.  But we make vows to love our spouses and we have the commandment to love God that we can fall back on, to remind ourselves what we must do.  And God himself provides us the grace with which we can love him as we ought (as he does for those bound in the Sacrament of Matrimony).

“Although he should kill me, I will trust in him” (Job 13, 15). There are times in the spiritual life when it seems that we have done everything God has asked us to do and we are left with nothing.  There times when the one striving to love God feels that God has turned on him or her.  We should keep firmly in mind that “our God is a devouring fire” (Hebrews 12, 29) who desires us to love him for himself, and not for his many benefits.  It is at this time that we must hold tightest to him.  It is easy to love when things go our way.  But to love when there is no rational reason to love is real love.  That is the love of Christ on the Cross.

God commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves.  This we do because the One who loves us beyond reason loves our neighbor in just the same way.  If we want to show our love for God, we love the one God loves.