Love God above all things and others as yourself…which of course presumes that you are loving yourselves. So right there you have The CORE, STEP 1 and STEP 2.
If step 1 was the beam going from us up to heaven, then step 2 is the horizontal beam reaching out from ourselves to our brothers and sisters. Put them together and you have the Cross, which is the solid foundation of our faith. Steps 4 through 6 that will come later, merely help us in living out these initial three.
We were created for relationship, first with God and then with each other. Being in relationship means that we are involved in each other’s lives, we matter to each other and want the best for each other. We don’t let those we love suffer if we can help it. This is in stark contrast to what the world offers…the hookup culture, and using the other person for self gratification…why porn is both so rampant and so, so wrong. It can never satisfy our longings for love.
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
We have often heard that love is a verb, the problem that we run into in fully recognizing that is that we associate love with some kind of Hallmark sentimentality. But that’s not what Christian love is. I’m not re-emphasing that in order to degrade feelings and emotions, I’m a ball of emotions myself. I think those of us that are attracted to the mystical side of spirituality often are. We are easily consumed by love. That is not good or bad, it just is…if anything, it probably provides us with the fire necessary to do what we need to. However to really love the way the Lord calls us to, is to go beyond that. To look in the eyes of the un-loveable and to see Jesus there. Mother Teresa comes to mind. Such unlovables can exist anywhere…from the streets of Calcutta, to our own families and neighborhoods…or our Facebook pages even. 😉
You can go listen to Father Lauer’s talk on this subject over at our LENTEN page.