30th Sunday - Fr. Leo
Jesus sums up Christianity by his two commands. One, to love God with our whole mind, heart and soul and secondly, to love our neighbor as ourselves. What Jesus did was summarize his own spirituality. Jesus loved the Father with all he had unto death. His death in turn was not for himself, but for humanity.
The key to both commands, is to love with all we have. This is a love that not only understands, but comes from feelings deep in our hearts. Love is an endless call to die to ourselves to be able to live for God and others.
I think the challenge of Jesus’ teaching is to love totally and not just a little. True love really is an all or nothing proposition. Because of this, Jesus’ words will forever challenge us to grow in love. Like the mystic, we abandon ourselves to God, so God may be our all. He’s living in us and we living in God,
This reminds me of the mystic I quoted not long ago who asked, “how holy do you want to be?”
Let us choose to pray this week for the gifts of the Spirit that we may treasure and pursue with our whole being the love of God. This is the only door to eternity. Too the experience of the timeless in the now! Come, Holy Spirit, enkindle in us the fire of your love!