Sunday Reflections

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”  “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.  (Matthew 22: 37, 39-40)

This is one of the most beautiful aspects of our faith, I have always thought; that although there are many details in Scripture, many commandments and liturgies, many Gifts of the Spirit and Works of Mercy, our entire history of faith can be simplified down to “Love God” and “Love your neighbour as yourself.”  We humans always complicate things, when all God wants is for us to Love! 

When we Love God, with all our heart and soul and mind, we listen to Him.  We go to Mass to hear His Word and to receive His Eucharist, so that we can learn more about this God we love, and so we can be strengthened with nourishment at His table of love.  When we Love God we pray to Him, in thanksgiving and supplication, in times of joy and in times of challenge.  When we Love God, people around us notice.  They see that we have peace in our hearts, knowing that the God we love, loves us unconditionally.  They hear the Word of God being proclaimed by our speech and our deeds, like the people of Thessalonica.  When we live each day Loving God, we become His witnesses in everything we do.

When we Love our neighbours as ourselves, the love that God planted in our hearts spills out and becomes active in our relationships with our families, our friends, our coworkers and literal neighbours, it becomes active in how we interact with every human and creature in God’s creation.  When we love our neighbours, we are attentive and notice when they are in need.  We speak up when we see injustice, and we work to right those wrongs.  We offer ourselves in service to others, in big and in small ways, in whatever ways we can with the talents and treasures we have.  It costs only a little bit of time to say hello, to offer a prayer for another, to let a neighbour know that we see them, they are not invisible or alone.  When we love our neighbours as ourselves, we offer them the attention and grace that we ourselves would want to receive.  And this active Love spreads, creates ripple effects, until the whole neighbourhood is caring for each other.  Until there are no widows or orphans left friendless.

I should not be surprised with how beautiful our faith is, knowing it is a gift from God, who created this whole beautiful world and each of us, but sometimes when I stop and think about it, the simplicity and cohesiveness of our faith still gives me goosebumps. Let us start and end each day by reminding ourselves that God loves each of us, and all He wants in return is for us to Love God and Love our Neighbours.