Jesus recognized that the scribe, who asked him about which commandment was the greatest, “answered with understanding,” and then he said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God” (Mk 12:34). What is it that the scribe understood?
The scribe understood that God “is One and that there is no other”. God is the true source of our being, our very existence. We have been created with an innate desire to be one with him. This is the longing we all feel in the depths of our soul, this is why nothing that is finite or material will ever fully satisfy us, and why we are always wanting more. This is as true for the mystic as it is for the atheist and everyone in between.
God is “One and no other” also means that we are not God, we are his created beings. God is not just one being among many, not even the supreme being. This orientation is important and foundational. We can only see from our limited perspective. What we think or believe we might need, may in fact not be truly good or beneficial for us, the shimmer may be just an apparent good, a distraction, a temptation, that will lead us away from the authentic fulfillment and meaning of life that we seek. God will guide us away from any unhealthy want, he will lead us away from temptation when we are willing to seek his guidance over and above our own. God will give us what we truly need, he will lead us to that which is, in reality, true, good, and beautiful.
Once we come to believe that God is God and we are his created beings, then we can take the next step and surrender: “to love him with all [our] heart, with all [our] soul, with all [our] mind, and with all [our] strength”. God wants all of us. We are to give all aspects of our lives to him. In our surrender to God and his will, we become capable of receiving his love and so are able to better love him in return. We all long to be loved and to love. Experiencing the love of God helps us to unconditionally love “our neighbor as our self” because through our surrender to his will we allow God to love others through us.
An interesting addition that Jesus adds to his presentation of the great commandment, is that in quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5, he adds to the original. Along with love God with our whole heart, soul, and strength, he adds to love God with all our mind. This insert helps us to understand how we can live out this commandment. We are to pray, to lift up our hearts and our minds to God. We can do this best when we meditate on his word daily. When we think about and continue to return to his word often we bring ourselves back into his presence and in his presence, we see better how we can give of ourselves fully to him and will be moved to love others.
As we surrender all of ourselves to God and love him in return, we will better love others (see Leviticus 19:18) as Jesus also commanded. To love God is like any other relationship. We need to spend quality time with God in stillness, be present One on one, as well as come to an awareness of God’s nearness in our daily activities. We are to resist compartmentalizing God and instead seek his presence in everything we do and through everyone we encounter.
Each of us, though prone to sin and wounded by our sin, are still not destroyed. God loves us as we are, and when we are repentant: willing to be contrite, confess, and follow through on our penance, God forgives our sins, he heals our wounds, and he transforms us. We need to stop running away from him and start running to him. One way we can do this is to love our neighbor as our self, for if we cannot love those we can see how can we love God who we can’t? Going out of ourselves and giving to another helps us to build relationships because time spent with each other breaks down the walls of separation that keep us at a distance.
Jesus’ arms are wide open before us in our neighbor. May we surrender all our heart, soul, mind, and strength into his loving embrace, receive his love and love him in return, and be willing to love our neighbor and our selves in the same way. When we understand this commandment, loving God, our neighbor and ourselves right, the other commandments will be something we will do naturally. As we enter into this practice, we too will hear Jesus say to us, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
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Photo: Some quiet time in our sanctuary meditating, praying, and contemplating on God’s word.
Spiritual Stepping Stones 