I frequently quote Matthew 22: 34-40: “The greatest commandments are…love the Lord your God….and….love your neighbor as you love yourself.” In a recent post, I focused on the aspect of loving one’s neighbors (“love your neighbor means loving everybody”).
As mentioned in that recent blog post, there’s a lot that goes into living each aspect of love God, love your neighbor, love yourself.
For the aspect of loving God, loving God necessitates investing time and effort into a continuing relationship with God.
A crucial aspect of faith gets to “the heart” of a loving relationship with God: God is love, God loves us, and God wants to have a relationship with us. It is God’s very nature to love. Given that it is God’s inherent nature to love, the Catholic Catechism speaks to God’s nature needing to be Trinitarian – Father, Son, Holy Ghost – because God needed someone to love before God had humans to love; the three aspects of the Trinity could love each other – each aspect of itself – until we humans came along….and, of course, the Trinity continues loving each aspect of itself. Paragraph 221 of the Catechism reads: “God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.”).
Us loving God in response to God’s love for us requires intentionality on our part. A relationship with God happens in prayer. There can be no faith without prayer (I don’t recall where I first heard this. It’s true!). Westerners live in an activity-focused society; sitting in communal presence with God (prayer!) – as well as with the people in our lives – requires the willingness to pause contemplatively. Pausing contemplatively can be uncomfortable for those unfamiliar with the practice – forcing presence with inner experience that is sometimes avoided. The fruit of being present with God can bring us to the joy of loving God and experiencing being loved by God.
I have heard prayer compared to a phone call. We wouldn’t phone someone and say, “I’m calling to tell you about X. Here’s what I have to say,” then hang up, ending the call. It’s the same way with prayer. Too often, prayer is thought to be one way – us talking to God. Remember to listen (“resting in God’s presence”). Prayer is a two-way communication – us communicating to God and – for many of us – allowing God to be present with us (a few saints sense direct verbal communication!). Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10).
Loving God is one of the aspects of how we are meant to live. Living in right relationship with God – loving God – turns out to be its’ own reward, bring joy to both God and to ourselves.
Loving God also requires loving our neighbor. Because each of us is a child of God, loving God inherently requires loving God’s children. “If someone says, ‘I love God,; and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen (1 John 4:20).” To whatever degree we live “love all of God’s children,” we contribute to making this world a better place.
Kim Burkhardt blogs at A Parish Catechist and The Books of the Ages (and a “Content Creator/Individual” member of the Association of Catholic Publishers). 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!). You can also support this blog by clicking here when you are going to shop on Amazon (that lands A Parish Catechist a commission on Amazon sales).
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