According to Jesus, the greatest commandment is to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matthew 22:37). Jesus is basically telling us "if you don't get anything else right, make sure you get this one." This is the greatest commandment. All others are secondary to this. I gotta tell you, I have been struggling with this. I don't feel that I am loving God this way, this deep, this committed. At least not yet.
However, like the exhortation to be perfect as God is perfect (Matthew 5:48), or to love one another with a love that always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres and never fails (1 Corinthians 13), this commandment is not something we can fully accomplish on this side of heaven. Still, I know I can love Him more fully. And the fact that He has awakened this desire, this shortcoming, in my heart actually gives me hope! I am pursuing it, I am asking Him to help me love Him this way. And I know He will honour and answer that prayer.
How are you doing with this, the greatest commandment? Do you also need to repent of your failing in this regard and seek to love God with a love that always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres and never fails?
Grace and peace and a deep love of God be yours,
Bruce
Lord, as I consider the great mystery of your resurrection, I come before you in prayer so that you can form and direct me.
I long for the sinfulness of my life to be burned away so that I can glorify you with a pure and contrite heart.
You know my sinfulness. You know my pride and sensuality.
I offer you my prayer today as a small token of my love.
My hope is that from the little I am able to love, you will teach me to love with a magnanimous heart.
I want to be part of your Kingdom.
I do not want to be on the fringes, but to plunge myself into the depths of your love.
(adapted from http://www.catholic.net/index.php?option=dedestaca&id=2511)
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