Today we hear a very famous Gospel passage which we
might dismiss easily because we feel we know it so well. Love God. Love your
neighbour. It sounds simple, yet it can be so difficult. Loving God in our
world today means being counter-cultural; often we are afraid to even admit
that we are believers. Finding time for God can be impossible due to our hectic
lifestyles; we are addicted to ‘busy’ and have become ‘time poor’. Yet we can
learn to see God in the everyday, right before us, in each task, in nature, in
our friends and family. We might ask ourselves today, what prevents me from
loving God, for making time for God in my life? For nourishing my relationship
with God?
The love of neighbour which Jesus speaks of is a
controversial love. It involves a love of people we don’t know or like. It is a
radical love of those that society wants to dismiss: love of the migrant, love
of the homeless family, love of the drug addict, love of the prisoner, love of
the earth, love of the climate refugee. Love God and Love Neighbour – it sounds
so simple yet these are the toughest, most radical lines in the Gospel. It
sounds like two commandments and yet they are one, interconnected and inseparable,
for to love God we must love our neighbour. And by loving our neighbour we are
loving God. Today let us all ask ourselves how we can live more fully this
great commandment and be a shining example of Christ’s love in the world.
