Heart and Soul

" One of the teachers of the law asked Jesus, ' Of all the commandments, which one is the most important?'  'The most important one', Jesus answered, 'is this; 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God, is the one Lord. Love the Lord your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your strength. And the second commandment is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than this.' 'Well said,' the scribe replied. 'You are right in saying that.' When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, He said to him, 'You are not far from the Kingdom of Heaven.' [Mark 12: 28-34].

Hurricane Sandy struck the Eastern coast of the United States on October 29, 2012.

In the storms's aftermath, many still have no power and no heat, and night time temperatures are going to dip into the 30's this week. People have lost all of their possessions. Some are now homeless. Many have lost pets. Children have died, some swept out of their mother's arms. People who used to be economically secure, are hungry and are scavenging through dumpsters, looking for food. Businesses have been destroyed and, therefore, people have lost their livelihoods.

I see the images of this disaster, and it hurts me deeply. I am shocked, sad-- grieving, even as those hardest hit are struggling. I take all of this loss and devastation very personally.

THIS is what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. It is a very simple commandment: to imagine yourself in this desperate situation. To ask yourself, what if this were me? What would I need others to do for me, to help me? How would I want to be treated?

I see these two commandments as essentially one and the same. IF you love God, then you are called to love your neighbor. IF you love your neighbor, then you are showing God how much you love HIM.

You cannot love God, with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength, if you do not love your neighbor in the same way as well!

To love God -- and my neighbor-- with all my heart and all my soul and all my strength? It sounds as if I will have no other strength left, but to do that. It sounds like loving God and my neighbor would be a full-time job?

It IS meant to be a full-time job. . . . In a sense, this is more than just what I am called to do. It is what I am called to BE.

When I was thirteen and I found out that I had almost died before I was even born, I resolved to fill every waking moment, of every single day, with purposeful activity.

That is admirable, but it is only part of the story. (After all, I can be very, very single minded in shopping for the perfect item-- for myself. . . .!)

It is a wholly different thing to spend as many moments as possible, every day, in loving others! How would the world change, if we could all spend all of our hearts, souls and physical efforts, every day, in loving others deeply? What if that love were not just a feeling, or even a prayer? What if it were a determination to use all of our energy to make the world a better place?

So here is my question: Remember what happened on Sept. 11, 2001? Remember Hurricane Katrina in 2005? Remember the tsunami of 2006 in Indonesia? Remember the major earthquake in China in 2008? Remember the earthquake in Haiti in 2010? Remember the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011?

If you are like me, you were probably riveted to those images in the news at the time. But, now perhaps you will have to Google these events to refresh your memory. I am ashamed to say that the raw images that so held my fascination then, have faded with time.

We hungrily devour the images of destruction as they unfold. We donate a few dollars. We move on in our lives. Our world expands temporarily to include the site of disaster. Then we shrink back to taking care of ourselves.

 But, what if we kept these images of our struggling brothers and sisters in our hearts and souls, and in our very being? What if we were in a world that could never forget, that would always work, in love, for our neighbors?

Then, maybe, just maybe, we would take it very personally if someone had no home; or no food; or no clothes; or no job; or no hope.

Then, maybe, just maybe, we would be angry enough to get up everyday and do something about it. Not ask why "Someone", somewhere, doesn't do something about it.

I pray that everyone can love, and give to others, with all of their heart and all of their soul and all of their strength.

[Related Posting: " Love Thy Neighbor", October 23, 2011].

(c) Spiritual Devotional 2012. All Rights Reserved.