Monday, July 15, 2013

Do you love God above all things?

This past Sunday's Gospel reading from St. Luke included the conversation between Jesus and a "scholar of the law". The scholar asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, and Jesus turns the tables on him by asking what is written in the law. The scholar replies

“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

We have a new priest at our parish. He has a facebook page that he has been fairly active on, and I hope he continues. I noticed on Saturday evening that he posed the question, "Do you love God above all things?" His question has about 35 "likes" and only 3 answers, one of which is mine.

I think this is something we really don't like to dwell on. I think we like to think that we love God above all else, but do we really?

My response is

"I strive to love God above all things but my actions are a testament to how far I still have to go."

I'm just being honest. If I really loved God "above all things" I would focus less on myself, what is happening to me, and how it affects me. I would stay focused on what my vocation as husband and father means, and the lives of my wife and children would be much better for it.

Loving God above all things means putting God first. I can't say that I do that. Probably every sin is rooted in not placing God first.

This doesn't mean that I feel defeated or have to go around pouting about it. It just means that I should take some time each day to recognize how I could have loved God a little more that day and strive to do better the next.

And maybe a better response is "sometimes", because yes, there are many times when I put all other things aside. I'm not a total spiritual failure. :-)

Who's Number One in your life?

1 comment:

  1. You're absolutely right about focus. In teaching we have the adage "What you focus on you get more of." We could all stand to focus more on God and less on self. Thanks for making me think about it! lcain

    ReplyDelete