Today, Jesus gives us the essential tool for a life pursuing Him. Its clearness and simplicity may cause us to overlook it, in favor of other passages that seem to drum up more discussion from their surprising nature or ambiguous meaning to sink into a debate, branches of interpretations spring forth. I only ask that you try to get past the familiarity and simplicity of this vital message, and reflect with me.
In this reading, God, made man, outlines for us succinctly what we must hold to the highest importance in our life. Here, He brings the story of our lives into a short request: to love Him, fully, with all our soul, mind, and body. It is with these three aspects of our whole person that we are able to navigate life, and here we are reminded why. We are all on this Earth to find our way home, where our hearts belong, in communion with He who formed us in the womb and intimately adores every inch of us.
How is it that we go about this? By walking in His ways, imitating as closely we can His nature: through deeply loving through every little and big thing we do, as He does. No act is too small an offering: be it a smile and a look in the eye to a struggling stranger, a surrender of personal priorities to help a friend, an openness and attempt at connecting even to someone who appears unappealing or repulsive. For it is by loving blindly without consideration of our false assumptions that we partake in the way that God loves. He sees and knows every beautiful and broken thing in us, and he loves us beyond the depths of our understanding despite every human flaw.
So I challenge myself and I challenge you this week, to hold this paramount commandment in your heart and aim to live it as best you can in every aspect of your day. Be creative in your loving, nothing is too little to be loved and appreciated by God. When it comes to those times when you must step out of your comfort zone to connect with someone different, try to see them how God sees each and every one of us: as His beloved, with a heart so precious that He would (and does) give His entire being in sacrifice for.
Lord, please help us to see each person as you see them, for the treasure that they are. Help us to fill each little and big act with love for you, this day and always. Amen!
