Is relationship
with God really all that complicated?
In the Book of Deuteronomy,
Moses reminds the people of Israel that God’s command – to love – is already in your mouth and in your hearts;
you have only to carry it out. The people have experienced God’s love for
them and have affirmed that they will be faithful to that love. God’s love is not conditional, it is constant
– God continues to love us through every failure on our part, through every sin
we commit. How do we, how can we,
respond to such love? We must remember
that God created us out of love, that his love is who we are, that that love is
at our core – and then we need to tap into that love at our core, restoring
what has always been, constantly re-entering into relationship with God, keeping his commandments and statutes,
returning to the Lord with all our heart and all our soul. In Psalm 69 the
psalmist knows that God, in his great mercy, will turn toward those in need; it’s up to us to seek God, that our hearts may
revive!
Paul’s Letter to the Colossians reminds us that Jesus is the
firstborn of all creation, our only image
of the invisible God. Through his
death and rising, Jesus took all human sin to death on the cross; he died and
rose that all humankind might die and rise. If sin breaks our bond with God, Jesus, the
revelation of God’s love, restores that bond – in him all things hold together, Paul says – so that we might continue to access the love
that is at our core. But it’s not enough
to access it for ourselves. The story of
the Good Samaritan in Luke’s Gospel reminds us that, if we claim to love the Lord with all our heart, with all our being, with all our strength,
and with all our mind, and our neighbor as our self, then we must not
have a narrow view of who that neighbor is.
The priest and the Levite both pass
by the robber’s victim on the other
side; they cannot touch him without incurring ritual impurity. But does that mean they can’t help him, can’t
love him? Could they not simply have
sent help?
In the end,
relationship with God is not really all that complicated. Jesus doesn’t ask us to accomplish the
impossible, to go up in the sky or across the sea. He does, however, require that we find within
ourselves, in our hearts, the ability
to give expression to the love that is ours from the beginning of time, our
love for God, love we are called to share with our neighbors – all of our neighbors, not just when we
feel safe, but always, and most particularly, whenever we see their need.
This post is based
on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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