What’s the answer?
7 June 2018
Have you ever asked yourself “what do I want to do with my life?” I have… and I really want the answer!
The Gospel today gives us Christ’s answer in two simple, powerful commandments: love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength; and, love your neighbour as yourself.
God wants you to love Him how He loves you, with everything. God is love. You were created out of love, for a life of love. The entire purpose of humanities existence is to be in a covenantal union of love with God.
But, before we can love others, or maybe even love God, we must first love ourselves. Once we see our own life as a creation of God, born beautiful, fearfully and wonderfully, can we see others as children of God. Maybe this is what St Augustine was getting at when he cried to God, ‘And look, you were within me and I was outside, and there I sought for you”? God dwells within us, hidden in the depths of our hearts. We must find that beautiful treasure in our lives and allow it to be the source of our identity.
How you live this life requires a shift in your priorities, summed up in the word JOY:
Jesus
Others
You.
It is not just a great acrostic poem, but a way to find your purpose. Your challenge today is to allow those three relationships, in that order, to be the focus of your love and life.
This scripture shares a rare moment in the Gospels, with Jesus and the scribe seeing eye to eye on what lies at the heart of religious belief: love. Essentially, it allows us to see the moment of realisation in the eyes of the learned man when it hits him: it’s not about what you do but who you are that matters in the eyes of God.
So who are you? A creation of love, with with a mission of love for the world. That’s what God wants you to do with your life. That’s your answer.
Amen.