Being a person of faith has a two-fold objective. Sometimes, people only seek to cultivate the first half of this faith equation: developing a personal relationship with God (i.e., seeking one’s own salvation and freedom). While a personal relationship with God is absolutely part of the faith journey (i.e., there can be no faith without prayer)…..if our personal faith journey were all that we were to focus on, that would very much limit the scope of being a person of faith. Faith necessarily takes us to loving our neighbor. Sometimes, sociologists and mythologists observe that faith traditions provide us with a framework of how to live well in the world.
In Jesus’ day, he was asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus replied, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22: 36-40)
When we grow in faith, our faith becomes visible to the degree that we begin living the seven virtues of Christianity: the four cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude and the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. One of these outward signs of our faith is that we increasingly become loving, caring people (i.e., charity….”love your neighbor as yourself” is very much bound up with charity and justice). Loving our neighbor requires caring for the people around us – being upstanding citizens, taking care of our families, being nice to our friends and relatives (even when that’s difficult!), providing for our communities (soup kitchens, prisoner visitation programs, performing well at our jobs, etc.).
Living these concepts well is an ongoing learning aspect of our faith journey. How well do each of us “love God and love our neighbors?” It varies from person to person. While few of us will become like Mother Teresa, the degree to which we become loving should become increasingly visible over time. Fortunate are the individuals who are graced with a natural ability to be good and loving to everyone (or most everyone) they encounter. For all of us, we – and the people who know us – should be able to see incremental increases in our loving behavior over time. For those of us who have to work toward “love your neighbor,” we are fortunate that there are an abundance of lessons within Christianity that move us toward “love your neighbor.” An insightful aspect of how we experience pouring out love to the people around us was recently summed up by Fr. Tim Clark of Seattle: “The sacrificial nature of love saves us from ourselves.”
Kim Burkhardt blogs at A Parish Catechist and The Books of the Ages. If you are a new visitor, it would be great to have you follow this blog (thank you!). If you know someone who would like this blog post, please share it with them (thank you!).
