The Essential

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greatest commandment, love, love God, love your neighbor as yourself, Matthew, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

There is never a question for me when the reading from the gospel of Matthew, chapter 22, verses 34-40 shows up in the daily lectionary. The answer to the question that Jesus had been asked by a scholar of the law to test him is all we need to know to order our lives and relationships. At least that’s how it seems to me.

Question: Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?

Answer: You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.

Most of us can recite it from memory but do we remember it as we go about our day?

Love Is (Still and Always) the Answer

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heart, love, love God, love your neighbor as yourself, Mark, mind, Moses, neighbor, soul, strength, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, truth

From the mouth of Moses to the gospel of Mark the Scriptures repeat the same message about how we are to live. We hear it today, not in a long diatribe but rather a brief directive about love. When asked what is the first and greatest commandment, we can all likely reply – at least with the short form of “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.” The deep impact of what that effort calls out from us, however, is in the almost staccato list of capacities that follows. We are to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength. In other words: Give it all you’ve got!

What occurred to me as I typed those last two sentences was that if we are to give ourselves so completely in loving God, what can be left for our neighbor whom we are supposed to love as ourselves? But that, it seems, is the mystery, the wonderful truth of this life of loving. In the love of God, everything gets transformed so that there is always enough love to go around – for ourselves and the neighbors everywhere who have become our other selves. Love begets love wherever it is found. That’s just the way it is. And it’s up to us to prove it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Being There

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compassion, difficulty, Jesus, letting God be God, love God, prayer, resistance, suffering, surrender, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trials, unite

There has been a lot of bad news lately – some global, some personal involving people that I love. My typical response to all of it (as maybe for many of us) is to try to make things better. I am lately finding it difficult to trust my ability to do anything and so am shifting to what some people would call “letting God be God.” What that involves sometimes looks like passivity, and it does involve surrender to what is, but it seems more sensible than being against anything which involves resistance and pushing when there is a wall in the way.

What is left when one gives up trying to fix things, it seems to me, is compassion – a feeling with others. It involves presence – physically if possible and long distance if necessary – and mindfulness of the struggles of others. It certainly could lead to action if that seems the best course, but if we unite ourselves to others who are suffering without losing a deep conviction of hope that does not necessarily depend on outcome  I believe that we may find ourselves to be agents of consolation. Additionally, our own prayer may be helpful in adding light to the world.

I realize that all of this (if it makes sense at all) may elicit from some people a reaction of “easy for you to say.” I have been much blessed in my life and have not personally suffered extreme trials. When life has been difficult in some way I have been gifted with the strength of companions whose compassion truly has made a difference and helped me move on. I suppose that is the point of all these thoughts…so the conclusion may simply be for all of us to cultivate good relationships, being faithful to them and to a serious effort to develop compassion in the manner of Jesus who emptied himself of himself in love for the life of the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Greatest Law

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heart, Jesus, love, love God, love our neighbors as ourselves, Mark, mind, soul, strength, ten commandments, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

When someone asks, as the scribe asked Jesus in this morning’s gospel (MK 12:28-34), What is the first of all the commandments? it’s a safe bet that most people who have any religious background will give the same answer. And we know that the one is really two: love of God and love of neighbor as ourselves. Jesus was quick to answer with the imperative from Deuteronomy that he had learned in his youth: Hear, O Israel! The Lord, our Lord, is One (or Lord alone!) What follows tells us how to love God: with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Pondering that directive would logically lead us to the next: Love your neighbor as yourself. If we’re spending ourselves in love of God with all of those faculties, everything else must flow from that activity, it seems. In other words, we must become the love of God manifest in the world. If that is true, there is no doubt that all of our intention and function would be an impulse of love – of ourselves and everyone else in God. It would all be seamless – no distinction or separation. And that, for thousands of years now, has been God’s desire for us.

Stay Awake

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calm, death, love God, Luke, Peace, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, vigilance, worry

One of my morning rituals as I drink my first cup of coffee is to check obituaries in the newspaper where I live. Having lived and ministered in the same area for 43 years, this practice has become a way to remember and pray for families that I have encountered during different periods in my life. I am constantly more conscious of the diversity of ages of people who have died – from the very old to the very young – as well as the manner in which they passed, whether quickly or after a long period of suffering.

In today’s gospel selection (LK 12:35-38) Luke recounts the parable of the servants who are waiting for their master to come back from a wedding feast. He cautions them to be ready no matter what time he comes. For me, this parable highlights the necessity of finding a balance between vigilance and peace in life. I need to be ready at any time to let go of this life (which has been very good to me!), knowing that I have done my best to love God, others and myself each day. At the same time, I need to be calm about what I feel is as yet unfinished and not worry about what death will be like when it comes. This is not always an easy task but waking up every day choosing to walk forward into whatever awaits is a willingness practice that I find reassuring. Trusting that God and I are on the same wavelength keeps me putting one foot in front of the other – moving as I’m able, always toward the light.

The Big Two

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God, Jesus, love God, Matthew, trust God

This morning’s words from Jesus (MT 22:34-46) are very familiar but I’m finding it more & more profitable to read slowly and reflect deeply to recognize new meanings. Here’s the part of the text I’m considering:

You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.

There are some changes in language depending on what translation of the Bible one uses (I’m missing “with all your strength” from my childhood), but the message has endured as a summary of the teachings of Jesus. The thing about it that called to me as a question this morning was that if we love God with everything in us – heart, mind and soul – what’s left of us with which to love our neighbor? If God is our every thought and impulse and deepest knowing, where’s the room for anyone else to enter us? The answer is mystery, of course. We trust that God is the ground in us out of which everything – thought, word and deed – arises and blossoms into awareness, care for and love of all others as well as our own fragile selves. God is, at the same time, the end of all our striving toward the fullness of love that we hope to know when we return to the heart of God in eternity. It is in fulfilling the second commandment that we move toward the “achievement” of the first because, as the Scriptures say, “How can you love God whom you do not see if you do not love your brother or sister (or yourself) whom you do see?”

Today, then, seems like a good day for filling up with God whom we encounter wherever we turn, in whomever we meet, with all that we are as gift.