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Vocation Meditation - October 26
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" Jesus said to him, " 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
More than answering the test laid down by His adversaries, Jesus laid down the complete definition of what religion is. To be truly religious is to love God. Jesus captured the essential creed of Judaism which His hearers knew too well, the text they had committed to memory since childhood. Each one has to give God a total love, a love which dominates all emotions, a love which directs all thoughts and a love that gives the dynamics of one's actions. This commandment underscores total commitment of life to God. But it doesn't end there.
The first is the foundation of the second commandment, not vice versa. For Jesus, love for God must lead to love of others. It is only when we love God that other people become lovable. Every man and woman should always be seen as persons made in the image of God. Seen from this perspective, the love of humanity is firmly grounded and truly possible. Devotion to God and practical service of others now becomes one supreme commandment for all.
Vocation Challenge:
My vocation is a permanent call to love God, to see and serve Him in others.
Do I cultivate well this contemplative dimension of seeing others in God as His image - broken yet graced in their daily situations?
For the full Gospel reading for this Sunday, visit the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops site.