30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Matthew 22:34-40
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."

Reflection
Matthew 22:34-40

POINTS TO PONDER

To love the Lord with all our heart – is this even possible? A common assumption is that love must just come, that it grows organically, and that it cannot be forced. That’s infatuation, not true love. Any kind of love – for a parent, spouse, child, or friend – will reach a point during which it is no longer easy. For love to be true, it must be a free choice and commitment.

‘All your heart, soul, and mind’ sounds rather extreme, even rather dangerous. The world says that loving anyone totally is a risky proposition – what if the one we love rejects us or lets us down, leaving us with nothing? And the world is even more terrified to love God totally, who cannot even be seen.

This makes sense; after all, to love totally is to trust that we will find fulfillment precisely by not looking for it ourselves, but by looking to fulfill someone else. That old, almost clichéd phrase, ‘love grows when it is given away,’ is actually spot-on in this regard.

True love takes a leap of faith, which is what frightens nonbelievers. Many people are okay with going to church every now and then or volunteering for a charity from time to time (and posting it on Instagram, of course).

Loving like that does not require us to make any kind of leap, any kind of definitive change, any commitment. But loving God with everything means that all we do is for love of him. We trust that he will take care of us. That is heroic; that is what it means to be a saint.

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