LOVING WITH ALL OUR HEARTS 25 Oct. 2026
Jesus telling a scholar of the law that the greatest commandment was that “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” was probably no great surprise to him. The scholar would have been familiar with this command and it is all too easy for any of us to get into an intellectual grasp of what God is asking of his chosen people.
As I was reading this gospel text once again, I found myself being surprised by what is implied in this commandment and I could not help but think this is stunning for anyone who explores what it is actually saying. To love God with all my heart, with all my soul and with all my mind takes me far beyond what I am capable of doing, far beyond my best efforts at pleasing God. Who of us would dare to say that he or she now loves God with all one’s heart, all one’s soul and all one’s mind?
To really love God or another person is to leave oneself behind, to become focused on what God or the other person is asking of us. It is to become selfless, totally given over to what is being asked of us. To truly love this way is to face the real limits of our ability, to know just how much we fall short of being true disciples, to know just how totally dependent we are on the grace of God. We cannot even begin to do what the law or Jesus is asking of us without gift of the Holy Spirit, without letting the power of God transform the longings of our human hearts.
Is this perhaps the real meaning of the law and what Jesus is asking of us, that we might own to own our inability to truly love without a sharing in God’s very own life and love? We have been taught at Christians that we are made in the image and likeness of God, that we have the potential for sharing in God’s very own life but we are only capable of doing this through God’s gift of the Holy Spirit. Is this the reason why prayer is so important in our everyday lives?
As a priest I am asked to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession with those who come to the abbey for this sacrament. What one is faced with in doing so is what happens in so many lives when prayer is neglected. We quickly fall into sin, give into selfish pleasures of one kind or other. It is only with the help of God’s continual gift of grace that we are capable of living our Christian or monastic way of life. It is only when we can truly own our human weakness, our fragility that allows God to move in and take over our lives. No one escapes this self-knowledge, no matter what their statis or dignity may be within the Church or society.
This is clearly what we were warned against in our first reading from Exodus telling us: “You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.” This reading reminded me of what is happening to aliens who have come to our own country and how they are being treated. Only with divine grace to see what is happening and begin to treat them as they deserve.
And isn’t this St Paul’s point in our second reading telling the Thessalonians of how they have “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and await his Son from heaven…who delivers us from the coming wrath.” The idols of our own time are becoming ever more manifested if we have the discerning eyes to see them.
It is at this Altar that we are given the eyes to see a Love that gives lasting freedom to our lives and empowers us to live in the way God is asking of us. Here at this Altar, takes place that act of love that has redeemed our world and would fill our hearts so that we may become truly God’s very own sons and daughters. Here at this Altar we are given the Holy Spirit who enables us to love God and our neighbor with all our hearts, will all our souls and with all our minds. Amen
Exod 22:20-26; 1 Thess 1:5c-10; Matt 22:34-40