Love with your whole heart – He did

Friends in the Lord,  

The saints tell us that throughout the earthly life of Christ, he had before him always, the Passion that he would undergo for us.  As the God-Man, his Divine Mind always saw,  not only all of creation – always there, in his mind – but also the Passion that he would endure.   

Knowing this, we can consider what Our Lord says today,  when asked: ‘What is the greatest Commandment?’ – What is it, Lord, that God asks most of us? –  

As Jesus answers, he is teaching this scribe before him how to live, yes, but he has in his mind as well, his Passion.  ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,  with all your soul, with all your mind, and all your strength, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ He did this.   

Christ IS Divinity; from his Divine perspective, all events are ONE, before him.  And so those words he FEELS as he says them, as if uttered at every time in his life, as if said on the cross. ‘You shall love the Lord with all your heart.’  

Jesus will give all, he will pour out all in his offering to the Father. The night of his Passion,  when Peter denies that he even knew him, Jesus looks at Peter, and those words are in his heart: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself – and he does; he still loves Peter.   Christ will fulfill these commands perfectly; giving all and loving even his neighbor: who betrayed him.  

But the Divine Mind of Christ is not in any way limited to the events of his earthly life; on the cross, he has in his mind each one of us as well.  Each of us. We are all his ‘neighbor.’  This Savior dies for each one of us in particular, knowing our whole life,  our deepest thoughts and joys and failings.   

All he asks is for our love in return, that we will love the Lord with all our heart, and mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourself.  Because if we do, he will be able to say to us: ‘You are not far, from the kingdom of God.’