Our Restless Hearts
When a scholar asks Jesus which commandment is the greatest, Jesus replies by summarising His entire law with two commandments: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind,” and “You shall love your neighbour as yourself,” (Matthew 22:37-39).
St. Augustine famously said: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” It is a message that has drawn many people to God. We are made to love Him; therefore, we need to love Him. Otherwise, we find a God-sized hole in our lives. We try to fill that hole in all sorts of self-destructive ways: drink, drugs, binge-eating, and many more.
When we put ourselves first, we make ourselves ill. Think of the self-centred people you know – how are they getting along, really? The illness I’m talking about is the sort of anxiety that selfishness brings; the sort of illness that afflicts us all when we spend too much time in our own heads and not enough looking outside, seeing that there are plenty of others whose needs are considerably greater than our own.
Love is central to the Christian faith, and these two commandments are utterly intertwined. Through loving each other, we are loving God. Through our compassion for the vulnerable, we are loving God; through putting the needs of others before our own, we are loving God; through respecting each other and showing kindness in our actions, we are loving God.
I’m grateful to be reminded of this commandment regularly, as this conversation is found in all three synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
God knows I need reminding.
Today's readings: Deuteronomy 6:2-6 Psalm 17 Hebrews 7:23-28 Mark 12:28-34
Photo Credit: Jacob Lund / Adobe Stock
Source: Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
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