#inseperable

Ah man no taylie today

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Wait a second

In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us the familiar words of the Great Commandment.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

While it reads like two commandments, it really isn’t. It’s all one thing.

As St. Bede says, “neither of these two kinds of love is expressed with full maturity without the other, because God cannot be loved apart from our neighbor, nor our neighbor apart from God.”

Which means that if you’re trashing your neighbor, don’t imagine that things are right between you and God. The two loves are inseparable.

While the two are inseparable, the order is intentional. Because it’s an order of operation.

That is, if you “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” You will “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Why? Because you cannot love God without being loved by God.

And here’s the thing, the more you love God, the more you find yourself alive and overflowing with God’s love.

When you are alive with God’s love, it will spill over into every other part of your life. That’s why you end up loving your neighbor as yourself.

Because you literally cannot contain the love of God.

This is why St. Bede says that “neither of these two kinds of love is expressed with full maturity without the other, because God cannot be loved apart from our neighbor, nor our neighbor apart from God.”

And why St. John warns us that anyone who says “I love God” but hates his neighbor, is a liar.

A little advice from someone who’s stumbled on this one. Before you worry about anyone else living down to St. John’s warning, make sure you look in the mirror first.