When asked by a scribe which is the first of all the commandments Jesus said “O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Mark goes on to share with us what Jesus said next: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If we do these things in our hearts I would guess our hearts would surely please God! The scribe, recognizing that loving like this is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices, was then told by Jesus that he was not far from the Kingdom of God. (Mark 12:28-34)
This leaves me a bit speechless. All God wants is our love. Love and loyalty to him, and love of our neighbors. It appears if we can do this then we are not far from the Kingdom of God. It seems then that his Kingdom can be found right here on earth and we can move very close to it if we but only love. This must be what some of our great saints have spoken of when they tasted his love – they must have experienced a portion of the Kingdom of God while living as a human being. How can our God and Father in heaven ask so little of us and give us so much in return. He literally offers us the entire world for only the price of love.
Tobiah and Sarah in our first reading from the Book of Tobit (6:10-11; 7:1bcde, 9-17: 8:4-9a) certainly knew how to love God and express loyalty to him. Sarah having experienced the deaths of seven husbands by a jealous demon on her wedding nights must have carried grief beyond our imagination. The prospect of marrying yet again certainly caused her soul to be fraught with inexplicable fear and shame. However, Tobiah, knowing it was God’s will that he marry Sarah, didn’t show fear. Rather he put all his trust in God. Their prayer to God on their wedding night was beautiful beyond mere words. They prayed words of gratitude to God, proclaiming their loyalty to him while asking for his mercy. The story has a great ending! The demon was cast out and Tobiah lived a fruitful life with Sarah. Most of all, their prayer showed their deep devotion to God and to the Sacrament of marriage. Many modern day couples use scripture from this portion of Tobit for their wedding liturgy. Ahhh, what God can do when we obey his commandment to love him and honor him as the one true God.
Speaking of weddings, if you read my reflection last week you learned I attended a wedding over the weekend. The bride was beautiful, the groom was handsome and the entire event was like a fairy tale, However; as with many family events, sometimes weddings bring back old family hurts and buried wounds re-open. This was the case for me. The old hurt involved one of my children, and for those who are familiar with the term “Momma Bear”, you can understand a bit of what I was feeling. However, I prayed about the pain, I sat in Chapel and I asked God to help me become loving in my heart and in my outward actions. Well, I have to admit, while I tried to be forgiving and loving in my heart, I fell short of what God calls me to do – I could have loved more. While I was polite, I was grateful and I participated in the joy of the event, my heart still held back. It felt better to withdraw a bit and withhold love. Quite the opposite of the commandments Jesus shared with us when he called us to love God above all others and love our neighbor as ourself. Why is it so hard for us to love sometimes??? Especially when we are blessed to know, on some level, the immense beauty available to us when we love God and his other children – we are granted entry into the Kingdom of God!
However, moving forward I will continually turn to God, knowing his love for me is eternal and never-ending. I will continue to ask for his assistance as I seek to become more loving, knowing that by loving and forgiving others I am loving and honoring God himself. I will continually approach the cross asking for assistance. Perhaps there are those in your life who are hard to love? Maybe you have been hurt, or someone has hurt your child? Maybe the hurt continues. Maybe you need to continually turn to God and ask for his mercy so that you can love and forgive in greater measure? Perhaps if we love and forgive others, we will receive greater love from God. If this is the case, and scripture says it is, then our hurts are indeed blessings in disguise. God wants our love and he will never stop loving us and showing us how to love more. Maybe the hurts are opportunities for us to grow closer to him and to love more? Hopefully with his grace we will all move closer to the Kingdom of God. Let us persevere in love and forgiveness together my friends – especially when our hearts hurt.
Jesus – I love you!
