The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Holy One our God,
the Supreme, is One;
you shall love the Holy One your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your mind,
and with all your strength.’
The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
—Mark 12.29-31
Among all the questions Jesus answers with another question,
or an ambiguous story, or an answer to a different question—
here, suddenly, he gives an answer, clear and simple.
We try to turn it into another question (But who is my neighbor?)
or an ambiguous story (But see how I’ve been hurt…)
but there is no “but.” There is only love.
To love someone is to honor my oneness with them,
and God’s oneness with them,
and to commit myself to their wholeness.
To love God-In-All is to love all God is in.
If I neglect this commandment I have failed them all.
Unless I love, all my obedience, even most pious, is to some other god.
God, don’t let me divert my love with fear,
dilute my love with anger,
limit my love with ideas of “deserving.”
Help me be loving even in fear or anger,
loving in repudiating wrongdoing, in seeking justice.
Let every moment be an invitation to love.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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