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Make sure to reflect on the Sunday Readings first either on Verbum Domini or the  USCCB Sunday Reading Site

 “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”

This is the first commandment, and yet how often are we willing to accept it. Jesus had fearlessly been preaching the Good News of the Kingdom and had silenced all those who came against him. But the Pharisees wanted to take a different tack. They then ask this question about which of the Ten Commandments is the greatest. Jesus doesn’t even flinch as he knows the author of those commandments, indeed he is the Word spoken to bring those commandments to life. How often when asked this same question, have we answered likewise? We are asked this question every day by the choices we make as we live in this world. For myself the challenge to love God fully by getting up and praying as I have promised, when I am tempted to love sleep just a little bit more. Or when I have the chance to protect the defenseless, but I am tempted to protect my comfort, my anonymity. We face these challenges everyday and cannot on the whole say that we love God if we fail to respond to these everyday challenges.  It is not to say that we cannot have our own life but it should be shaped by these commandments of Love and Life. It is not easy but the rewards are eternal life. Paul reflects this back to the Thessalonians when he says: “And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit, so that you became a model for all the believers”.  For when we make ourselves over into God’s image then we will love God as he has loved us, Love ourselves as we are loved by God and Love all the World with that same love! Do not live half a life that is comfortable but empty, rather live the live shown to us by Christ!