Dear friends,
Responding to the question of the Teacher of the Law: ‘Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law? Jesus stressed the direct relationship between love of God and love of neighbour. He explained that the rest of the laws are based on the two. They are like the hinges on which the entire law hung. Loving God and loving our neighbour is the heart of our daily lives, the springboard of our actions, the basis of our decisions, the reason for our prayer life, the motivation of our lifestyle and the very reason why we live together on earth. What is most important in our life? Not pleasure, nor wealth, nor health, nor beauty, nor fame, but only love. And as St. Paul says, without love, everything else in life becomes merely booming gongs or clanging cymbals, profiting us nothing (1 Cor 13:1).
But Jesus not only commands us to love others but to love others as we love our own selves. Jesus himself shows us the way of love. He asks us to do this wherever we live and with all we encounter.
To love your neighbor as yourself is to care for them with the same intensity, with the same concern, with the same commitment, with the same effort, and with the same actions as you do for yourself. The simple fact of the matter is that humans are naturally self-centered and they love themselves more than anything and anyone else. But as we learn to love God with all our being, we also learn to be other centered and start fulfilling this command as well to love others the same way we love ourselves.
If you love the Lord God with all your heart, soul and mind then you will not have any other God before Him. If you love your neighbor as yourself you will not kill them, steal from them, bear false witness against them, covet what they have and you will even honor your parents. A true love for God will come out in loving people.
Moved by the love of God, Caritas For Children Organization has strived to live this message of love. Love being the heartbeat of what it means for us to follow Jesus. A love that is mission-oriented. A love that is demanding. A love that is inclusive of all people. A love that is self-accepting. We need to pray for ourselves and each other that we can grow in love and so reflect the ministry of Jesus in our own lives and throughout the world.
