God Knows You, Therefore He Loves You

When we complete a project or reach the end of a year, we often like to summarize our experiences, insights, and what we find meaningful. Capturing, that, which we should use in the future. This reflection can serve as a foundation for future tasks. The scribes of ancient Judea probably wanted to focus on the most essential or important parts of the Jewish faith – focusing it on the core principles.

The Big Question

In our Gospel, (Mark 12: 38-44) one of the scribes poses this question to Jesus: "Which is the first of all the commandments?" As a pious Jew, Jesus grounds His answer in the fundamental commandment of listening to God's voice, from the Book of Deuteronomy: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God, is Lord alone!

This important Jewish commandment expresses a personal relationship, highlighting each person's devotion to the Creator God of the first covenant. Yet, Jesus does not let this love for God stand alone. He links it with another commandment from Leviticus (19:18) “Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your own people. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord”.

So, Jesus says: “the second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. No is no other commandment greater than these.”

For Jesus, there is no more profound statement about what truly matters for humanity - for one's spirit, one’s body, and for one’s soul.

Dear Friends

Is God asking too much of us here?" You shall love your neighbor as yourself! Yes, of course. This commandment presents a challenge—but I prefer to call it an extra-ordinary divine invitation. This challenge, basically, calls us to decide, to make a life style decision.

Dear friends in faith, this divine-human relationship begins with an encounter with a person who opens new horizons or new perspectives. It is an encounter where we feel seen and valued, recognized as vulnerable individuals with feelings, hopes, worries, and fears. Through these experiences, a person realizes and recognizes that God has loved them first, from the very beginning.

In St. John’s First Letter, we read: “We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.”

Wonderful — God loves us because he knows us. It is easy to tell someone I love you without knowing their weaknesses. To say I love you, knowing that person’ weaknesses is deeper and more challenging. God knows our strengths and weakness. Therefore, he loves us. This is the profound, great mystery of His love for us humans. We do not fully understand it; we can only accept it and try to find a way to respond. Because of this, the way I treat those around me becomes a measure of my love for God.

My Challenge and Yours

I recognize that fully embracing and putting this fundamental attitude into practice is challenging. For example, accepting difficult neighbors, colleagues, friends or even family members. Trying to understand what makes them tick is not easy. In other words, one must open themselves up to a relationship, which includes challenging situations. It is important to be able to stand by one's opinion—even if it is unpleasant or uncomfortable. Therefore, mature love includes the set bounderies. Mature love does not seek compromises out of fear of confrontation. Our faith must prove itself through the reality of our lives. More over, our love can be strengthened in the everyday realities of our lives. For this reason, mature love seeks the wholeness of the person, trying to consider their entire being and well-being.

Friends, how powerful a word of recognition and kindness can be!

How uplifting is a selfless embrace that says, “I am here if you need me. I walk beside you—you are not alone.” Now the circle closes again. I would like to come back to the verse from St. John’s First Letter:

“We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.” (1 John 4:16).

With this divine love in our hearts, we are capable of loving one another. God’s love permeates everything and every person. His love is the center of our faith as individuals and as the community of the Catholic Church. And it is only this love, anchored in our time and in our life, that changes our world.

My wish for all of us is that, we may say and testify: "I have experienced the love of God in my life and I have believed in it." Amen

Praised be Jesus Christ.