Love God

I few months ago, we had one of the most amazing preachers in the United States just a few miles away from here in New Baltimore.  Fr. Larry Richards, a priest of Erie, who now goes around the country giving retreats for men.  He had some really amazing things to say, and I have to say, I did sort of steal one of his lines for All Saints Day….   Fr. Larry used to be the chaplain at Erie Cathedral prep, which is an all boys prep school in Erie.  Well, when I was at Seminary at St. Vincent's, there were a bunch of guys there who had attended prep while he was the chaplain, and they credited him with being the reason for their vocation.  They're now wonderful priests in the Erie Diocese.

As I read through this story, I couldn't help but think about the story my friends told me in Seminary, and then later Fr. Larry told me about what he would do on the first day of school with the new students.  Every year, he would gather all of the students into the gym, and he would say to them.   "I submit to you, Gentlemen, that Jesus Christ isn't God, prove to me that he is."  Well, every year, the boys ears would perk up, and they'd stare at this crazy priest who just asked them that.  So he'd walk down the line and ask boys "Do you believe Jesus Christ is God?"   Some of them would say yes, and he's ask "why?  Why do you believe that?"   Of course, the boys would just sort of stare at him a little embarrassed.  A few smart alecks would say "nope, I don’t believe it."  Until finally, he would look at them and say "Ok…now ask me"   When they asked him, he gave them one answer.  He said, "I know that Jesus Christ is God because I know him.  I spend time with him every day.  He's alive and I talk to him, it would be like someone asking me if my mother was real.  I'd look at them and say, Of course she's real, I talked to her last night.   Then, Fr. Larry would go on to tell all the young men just how important it was to talk to Jesus every day.

I think of that story, and I briefly thought of acting out his method, so I hope you'll forgive me if I just told you about it…but when I think of that story, I think it's the real message of the Gospel today.  Why does Jesus point to Loving God and Loving our Neighbor as the two great commandments?  Because they sum up every other commandment.

If we really spend time with God every day, if we take time for prayer every day, if we develop a relationship with him every day, If we really are going t love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength…what is that going to look like, really? 

Well, what's it look like when anyone is completely, head-over-heels in love with someone?  They can't get enough, they want to spend every waking hour with that person.  If a boy is really in love with a girl, does anyone need to tell him to "go spend time with her?" or to "share things with her" or to "do things for her?"  or "try to impress her"  Of course not.  He's going to want to  do every one of those things because of his love.  That's what Moses was driving at when he said the Shema, the central teaching of Judaism, "The Lord is our God the Lord Alone.  Therefore you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength."   If we really do that, we're going to fulfill all the commandments and more besides.  Not because we have to, but because we want to.

When St. Augustine was talking about this reading, he said, "If you really love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength, you can do whatever you want."  If we really loved God that perfectly, we would be incapable of sin.  Not that things that were wrong suddenly became ok, but we'd have no more desire to go against the one that we love, than that teenage boy would want to abandon the girl he's got the wild crush on.  If we really love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we're going to want to talk to him, to learn about him, to find out what he likes, what we can do, to work through our lives to build that relationship with him, so that we can get to spend eternity with him.

I guess that, the most amazing part of the whole story.  When that boy has a huge crush on the girl…what's the main thing that keeps him back, what keeps him from talking to her?   He's afraid of being rejected.  He's afraid she's going to take that crush out and stomp on it.  That's the amazing thing about a relationship with Jesus Christ.  We know for a fact that he loves us more than his own life.  He showed us that already.  We know that no matter what we do, what we face, he'll always love us, he'll never abandon us, period.  He loves us completely, right now, even with our faults and imperfections, even with all the junk we carry with us. 

Sometimes, the hardest part of the Catholic faith is realizing that Yes, Jesus really does love me that much, and If I really know that, in the depth of my heart.  Then I really can let go of all the other junk, all my fears, all my worries, all the baggage I carry around.  I can realize that yes, I'm worth loving….and when I know that in the depth of my soul…I'm not sure how we could do anything but love him in return.