Wednesday, December 21, 2022

 

Wednesday, December 21, 2022


Psalms 120; 121

Isaiah 26:1-19

Mark 12:28-40


Observance: Fourth Wednesday in Advent; Thomas, apostle and martyr


“When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”


What does it mean to “love”? There are many things in our lives we could claim to love without really thinking about it, that we would answer by reflex. Do we love our mum? Our home? Our friends? Our car? This love reflex is not a bad thing. It means our hearts work. We are made in the image of God, which means the instinct to love is built into our very being. To love is who we are.


What about a thoughtful love? The type of love that takes effort. The kind of effort we make when we want to build the love relationship into more than just a reflex. The fact that “marriage counsellor” is a full-time job would suggest that we humans also have the instinct to see love as something worth putting effort into.


The greatest commandment, direct from the mouth of God, is to love God. This kind of love is definitely worth investing effort into. God is the most interesting Person around, and the fact that we have both the permission and the ability to love God is a wonderful and worthwhile life pursuit.


Jesus says that this is the greatest and first commandment, which means that if we want to know how to put the effort into loving God more, we should follow the rest of the commandments. This is why we walk this narrow path of holiness: because by it, we deepen our love for God.


Jesus goes on to teach that there is another like it; to love our neighbour as ourselves. What we can take from this is the knowledge that to follow God’s commandments is to love our neighbours. We don’t work our way up to a love of God by loving our neighbour; rather, we work our way up to loving our neighbour the more we love God. We go to the source of love: God; fill up our tank, and then take that love out on the road and share it around.


Rest in God’s love; relax in it, soak it up, swim around in it, notice how it can be seen everywhere you go. Living like this means we cannot help but love our neighbour, and it also means we will only ever love God more and more.



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