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October 27, 2023“Love God and Do Whatever You Want!”This famous line was first penned by St. Augustine, and many saints and scholars through the centuries love to repeat it. The first time I ever read it, I wondered if it was some kind of “loophole” in Christianity. If a person truly loves God…then they can do whatever they want?
On further reflection, of course, the meaning is clear: If we love God, then what He wants will become what we want—and what we want will invariably be what He wants. Actively loving God and trying to obey His teachings and commandments actually changes what we desire.
Today the Pharisees sent a “scholar of the law” to test Jesus. His question was “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jesus simply replies by quoting Deuteronomy 6, a Scripture every Jewish child knew by heart, much less the adults and scholars! “Hear of Israel, the Lord is God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.” And then Jesus continues: “The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Please be careful that this very familiar teaching of Jesus Christ is not just passed over quickly. It is easy to think, “Oh, I know that one.” But the Lord is inviting us today not just to know that teaching, but to live it! Do we truly love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls and minds, every minute of every day? Certainly not. But this is the first and greatest commandment! Have we given up trying to do this? Or have we ever really made the effort to do this in the first place, actually believing that it is possible, with God’s grace?
And if that first and greatest teaching were not hard enough, the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Ouch! Ask yourself, and ask the Lord: “How am I actually doing with the two greatest commandments?”
Perhaps this is why G.K. Chesterton famously wrote: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” (G.K. Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World). I still agree with St. Augustine: “Love God and do whatever you want.” But truly loving God is a game-changer.
Fr. Brett Brannen
Pastor
