Mt 22: 34-40
When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Get to the Point
Have you ever listened to someone telling a long story and thought, “When are they going to get to the point?” Often in life, I find myself wanting to skip the details. I want a short summary. In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us the gist, the main idea, the thesis statement. He says that the “whole law” comes down to two points: Love God fully with your soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. Though I’m thrilled to have the Cliff Notes version, it is certainly not a small command.
What does it mean for me to live a life of fully loving God and neighbor? Does God get all of my mind and my soul, or am I keeping some parts separate from God? Am I replacing God with something else? Am I loving my neighbor how I want to be loved? Thank you Jesus for getting to the point… but can you also make it easier?
—Kathy Powell is the Creative Director & Content Strategist for Becky Eldredge | Ignatian Ministries. She spends her days dreaming up ways to invite people deeper in their walk with God, reminding her kids to use their inside voices, and walking with families who have lost a child by miscarriage.
Prayer
Prayer to Love More Fully
Jesus, I come to you with an open heart. Open my eyes to see what you see. Show me how to love more fully.
I feel your tug to lean into the silence, to go to my inner chapel and look with you. Illuminate the hardened parts of my heart that I try to hide.
I rest in your love, knowing that the greatest gift is that my love is returned by you a thousand fold. Jesus, I love you. Help me open to your love for me.
It is in the bone-deep knowing that you love me unconditionally, that my heart overflows and I am compelled to love my neighbors. Strengthen me to love my neighbors fully.
Jesus, still my heart to listen to your response.
I am loved by you. I love you. I love others.
Jesus, standing with a heart fully loved, I am yours.
Amen
—Kathy Powell