COMING CLOSER TO CHRIST: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind

In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus packs all the wisdom of the world into two short commandments. The keyword is, obviously, love. Usually, we associate this word with some pleasant feelings, intense and delightful emotions. But the word Jesus used means something much deeper. It is the word “agape” [AH-gah-pay], and it refers to the love that means desiring union with something that is good in itself. If we love a person, it means we love spending time with them, getting to know them, sharing the experiences of life with them. This is Christian love: not some passing, self-indulgent emotion, but a courageous lifestyle that puts God first, others second, and self third.

SENDING US OUT: You shall love your neighbour as yourself

Laying down our lives for others is not complicated. Whenever we perform ordinary actions with extraordinary love, such as cleaning the house or taking out the trash or listening when we feel like interrupting, we are laying down our lives for others. We need to be patient: we are not always going to feel extraordinary love, but it is enough to choose the good of the other person and try to carry that out.

Pick someone this week for whom you can do an act of charity and show God’s love through action.