use to live our life to the full, I think the answer is
in what Christ
himself said when asked what the greatest commandment of
God was.
If we believe
that it is in the will of God where
everything begins and ends, where what is true and good
for us is
contained, then we have to realize that it is in knowing
and living
his will or his commandment that we would be able to live
our life to
the full. We should be eager to put that commandment into
practice.
And what was
the answer of Christ to the question? “You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and
will all your
soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength,”
he said.
The he continued, “The second is this, You shall love
your neighbour
as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than
these.” (Mk
12,30-31)
Later on,
Christ himself summarized these commandments
into a new commandment, giving us a more clear way of
living the two
inseparable commandments. And that is to “love one
another as I
(Christ) have loved you.”
Christ makes
himself the standard of that love by which we
have to live our life to full, since He is the very
embodiment of
loving God with everything, including offering his own
life on the
cross in obedience to the will of his Father, and of
loving everyone,
including those who crucified him.
This is the
basic formula to use to live our life
properly. Everything has to be determined by our love for
God and love
for neighbour. The parameters to use in everything that
we do,
starting with our thoughts and intentions down to our
most material
activities, should be love for God and love for
neighbour.
These are the
determinants that should define our life and
give shape to our thoughts, words and deeds. Outside of
these
parameters, we would be straying from the proper path.
We have to
understand then that what would constitute as
our true development and as our fullness of life should
be the fruit
of our love for God and love for the others, whoever they
may be, for
that is what a neighbour is—he is anyone and everyone.
We have to be
wary with just doing what we like to do,
even if what we do is objectively not bad since it is not
a wilful
disobedience of God’s commandments. This is because, if
it not
referred to the love of God and love for neighbour, it
may just be an
exercise of self-centeredness or selfishness.
And this is the
common predicament we have around the
world. People, merely relying on what they consider as
personal good,
just do whatever is convenient and practical to them,
whatever is
profitable and advantageous to them.
We have to do
everything to escape from the grip of these
worldly values that can only be legitimate if related to
love of God
and love for neighbor. We have to spread the good news
that it is
actually when things begin and end with God that whatever
legitimate
desire for success, wealth, power, etc., would be
achieved properly.
That’s why in
many of our liturgical prayers, we always
end with the words, “Through Christ, our Lord...” That’s
simply
because it would only be through Christ that whatever we
say or ask in
our prayers is heard and acted upon by God.
In fact, in
many prayers, we also express the very idea
that everything begins and ends with God. A sample of
this is the
following favourite thanksgiving prayer of mine: Go
before us, O Lord,
we beseech Thee, in all our doings with Thy gracious
inspiration, and
further us with Thy continual help, that every prayer and
work of ours
may begin from Thee, and by Thee be duly ended. Through
Christ our
Lord. Amen.
We also have to
remember that referring ourselves to God
always involves referring ourselves too with others. God
and neighbour
cannot be separated. Our love for God would not be true
if it is not
carried out in our love for others. And vice-versa. Our
love for
neighbour would not be true if not based on our love for
God.
It’s this dual
reference of our thoughts, words and
actions that would give us the objective path for our own
development
and joy, a joy that would be lasting and would lead us to
eternal
life.
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