A Love That Gives All

There is no trick to the Christian faith, nor is there some difficult assignment to figure out. Jesus will not give us a dogmatic exam prior to entering heaven. So be at ease, you will not be asked to explain homoousios, theosis, or transubstantiation vs. consubstantiation. We are simply judged on one thing and one thing only, Love!

Jesus reminds all of those listening that one must love God with his or her whole heart, soul, and mind, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself. That’s it, no real trick to it. Jesus has made it quite simple. And yet, it is so difficult. The difficulty arises out of expectations and our desire to move in our own direction.

All of us have expectations of God as well as our neighbor. We naturally expect God to take care of us and when something goes wrong or goes bad our expectations of God change, or at least we begin to ask questions, such as, “How can God let this happen, is God really good, why did he allow evil, etc.?” We feel as if God let us down. We also carry the same expectations of our neighbors. We feel that those around us, especially those we love will keep trust and faith with us. If it is broken then it becomes harder to love them. We also begin to have our own ideas, some of which are good and some of which are not. We begin to move in our own direction away from God through sin and we also move away from neighbor because we begin to think of ourselves, rather than the good. Some of this is just outright sin, while some of it is just honest journeying through life.

Jesus wants us to stay focused on what matters. What matters most is love. Jesus talks about love quite often. One place where he does that rather profoundly is in John chapter 15. “There is no greater love than this then to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” We must lay down our lives for the Lord and for one another. We must do so for everyone, not just my family and friends, but even the stranger, and even and more so the persons who have hurt us most in life. There is the real difficulty. Maybe we’d rather take that dogmatic test, a few hours of study and in we’ll be fine, because this love thing is quite difficult indeed. I’m afraid to say it, knowledge is wonderful, but love is greater.

Knowledge is wonderful and the Lord raises up people to plunge the depths of his wisdom, i.e. Paul, Luke, Augustine, Aquinas, etc. All of it for the Church’s benefit so that we may search the deep riches of God’s infinite person and wisdom. Yet none of it is worth anything without love, c.f. 1 Cor. Chapter 13. Even St. Thomas Aquinas when asked the value of his life’s work on the Summa Theologica responded, “It all seems as straw compared to what I have seen.” Thomas may very well have seen God in some sense and realized it is all about love.

I guess Lennon and McCartney were right after all, “All you need is love.” All kidding aside, it is true. Think for a moment if all people did everything they could to follow Jesus’ two simple commandments? The world would be a better place. It has to start somewhere, so why not right now? Pray with me that all of us will love God above all else and that we will truly love our neighbors as God desires, that our love will be a reflection of Jesus’ love, a love that gives everything, even our very lives. Amen!