Matt 22:33-40

This Gospel passage has so much in it that its familiarity could mean we gloss over its deeper meanings. The commandment to love God ‘with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind’ seems to me to be a full time job in itself. Another way of putting it is to be completely caught up in loving God. I know I fall well short of that mark.

Something that might help me more closely meet the commandment is further exploration of how one can ‘love God’. While one might focus on prayer and reading scripture and the like, we can love God by loving God’s creation.Those of us in the developed world need to carefully examine our daily actions and the way they work with or harm God’s creation. Living and loving ethically has significant consequences for ourselves and future generations.

We also love God’s creation in the second part of the passage – by loving our neighbour, as ourselves. When we think about the armed conflicts around the world, as well as community relations and the way those on the margins are treated both in real life and the digital space, we have a long way to go in loving our neighbour.

Peace is not the absence of war. Peace begins in each person’s heart. So I must be at peace with myself before I can be at peace with anyone else. Thus I suggest that the problem is that we do love our neighbour as ourselves but we love ourselves so poorly that our relationships with others are soured. So let us each take time to appreciate ourselves, all of our God-given gifts and talents. As I begin to be more at peace with all that God has done in me, my relationships with others will be more selfless and truly loving – and so more fully honour the God in whom I live and move and have my being.