On Love

     In today's Gospel reading, Jesus gives the "The Law of Love". In fact, the first half of the rule was not new; Jesus simply quoted the words of Moses from the Book of Deuteronomy: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deu 6:4-5) 

     How can we love God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our strength if by God's very nature we cannot fully understand the identity of our Creator? In our human relations, we keep love as one of our most closely guarded emotions. We are hesitant to love anyone unless we know them really well already. With God, we must be prepared to do just the opposite: if we are to have any chance of knowing God, we must first love God.

      I actually think this type of love is easier to understand in the Spanish language than it is in English. In Spanish, the verb used to express love for someone (not something) is querer. In most circumstances this verb means to want or desire something. So, in a sense, the primary way to express love for someone in Spanish is to do nothing less than to say te quiero ("I want/desire you"). So it is with God! We must first have a desire for God. Only then can we love God. We must search for God before we can love God because God is pure love itself. All earthly love is merely partial in comparison that pours forth from the very One which created us, who willed our very existence into Being. No human love can compare to the love of the Father, who bears with our shortcomings and our distancing from Him, never ceasing to offer us mercy and forgiveness the moment we turn back.

     That is not to say we ought to turn our backs on human love. Jesus expanded and completed the Judaic law with the instruction to love our neighbor as ourself. The love people encounter in this life is a gift from God and should be treated with respect and full devotion. In so doing, we come to glorify God by our love for another, always and everywhere desiring that more perfect love that is only to be found in the next world with God.