Most worthy of love (Bishop Robert Barron)

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
 You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

--Mark 12:30-31

    All of religion is finally about awakening the deepest desire of the heart and directing it toward God; it is about the ordering of love toward that which is most worthy of love. But, Jesus says, a necessary implication of this love of God is compassion for one’s fellow human beings.

    Why are the two commandments so tightly linked? The best response is the simplest: because of who Jesus is. Christ is not simply a human being, and he is not simply God; rather, he is the God-man, the one in whose person divinity and humanity meet.

    Therefore, it is finally impossible to love him as God without loving the humanity that he has, in his own person, embraced. Those who know Christ Jesus, fully divine and fully human, realize that the love of God necessarily draws us to a love for the human race. They grasp the logical consistency and spiritual integrity of the greatest commandment.

--Bishop Robert Barron,
Gospel Reflection, October 5, 2020

Image source: Elena Kotliarker, The Song of Songs Day (2017), https://www.artmajeur.com/en/elena-kotliarker/artworks/10573918/the-song-of-songs-day