Do you have it in you?
In Moses’ final address to the people of Israel in the Book of Deuteronomy, his primary goal is to remind them that, while God’s commandments and statutes may seem mysterious and remote, in fact, all of them are already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry them out. The people have affirmed that they will be faithful to the Lord; they have experienced God’s love for them and will respond in kind with love and fidelity. Moses knows they are not perfect – their love for God is something they must grow into – but Moses asks them to invest fully in that love based on what they hold within, in the depths of their hearts. Their love for God will be manifested in part in their song of gratitude and devotion, as in Psalm 69: I will praise the name of God in song, and I will glorify him with thanksgiving.
In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus will reiterate to his disciples that the single commandment that matters is, You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. Do we have it us to do that? The story of the Good Samaritan gives concrete understanding of the definition of neighbor on both sides of the equation, for it is the Samaritan who is neighbor to the robbers’ victim, as the victim is neighbor to the Samaritan, no matter their cities of origin. God’s love for us never wavers, never changes, as Paul makes clear to the Colossians; Jesus made peace by the blood of his cross, suffering for us, dying and rising, that we might find our way back to the love that is at our core. When we choose to love our neighbor more than our self, we are tapping into that love within us.
God created us out of love and it is his love that we are drawn to; that love is at the core of our identity. God is not asking us for the impossible: we have it in ourselves to do the impossible because we have God’s love within us. We need to work to tap into that love for and remain in relationship with the Lord, open to his call, that we might share his love with all, loving God and neighbor alike, until we know no boundaries, no divisions, only the perfect love of God.
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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