Mark 12: 28-34
One of the scribes asked
him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” Jesus answered, “The foremost
is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,
and with all your strength, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
There is no other commandment greater than this.” The scribe said to him,
“Right, Teacher; you have truly stated that he is one, and there is no one else
beside him; and to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding
and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as himself, is much more
than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he had answered
intelligently, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
*
Do
you know what the secret of life is?
It’s this.
One thing. You stick to that one thing and nothing else really
matters.
It
takes a lot of faith for some of us to keep coming to church week after week.
Every day we hear about unexplainable evil and suffering somewhere in the
world. Personal tragedy sometimes even hits our own lives. Sometimes we suffer
a deep hurt from someone we loved and trusted, from someone or something we
believed in, maybe even dedicated our life to. Some of us may be scandalized, hurt
or disappointed by the actions of, or decisions made by, leaders of our
churches. And yet we keep coming, week after week, season after season, year
after year. Where does this kind of faith come from?
Faith
is a gift but we have to accept it. It’s a big gift and if we try to reach for
it with one hand, it’s going to be shaky. We need to embrace this gift with
both arms open wide to take it fully. We need to embrace it with our whole
heart, our whole soul, and our whole mind, our whole strength. This means that
our personal relationship with God becomes the center and most important part
of our lives.
I
saw a movie several years ago called City
Slickers. It stars Billy Crystal and Jack Palance. Jack Palance received an
Oscar for his performance. In the movie Billy Crystal is a burnt-out business
executive going through a mid-life crisis, a depression. Job, family, friends
have all lost their meaning for him. There is no more joy in life. He goes out
West to a dude ranch to participate in a two-week cattle drive hoping to find
himself.
Jack
Palance is the tough trail boss named Curly. Curly is a seasoned, no nonsense
cowboy who has spent his whole life herding cattle. Curly sees how depressed
Billy Crystal is, and asks him, “Do you know what the secret of life is? It’s
this,” and he raises up one finger. “One thing.” Curly tells him, “You stick to
that one thing and nothing else matters.”
“What’s
the one thing?” Billy Crystal asks. Curly answers, “That’s for you to figure
out.”
Two
thousand years ago, someone asked Jesus what that one thing was. We heard the
story in the above Gospel: “What is the
foremost commandment of all?” [What is the secret of life?] And Jesus
answered, one thing – “you shall love the
Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
mind, and with all your strength, and you shall love your neighbor as
yourself.”
When
we embrace that one thing, we are
making God the center and most important part of our life. We are reaching with
both arms to accept the amazing gift of faith. That faith will carry us through
all the pain and hurt, all the confusion and struggle of our own lives. It will
give us the strength to live in a world that all too often seems filled with
evil and suffering. It will give us the hope and the courage to never give up;
to keep trying to build God’s kingdom here among us — a kingdom of love and
compassion; a kingdom of justice and equality.
It
is faith that enables us to open ourselves totally to God; to make God the
center of our existence; to love God with our whole heart, and our whole soul,
and our whole mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
This
is the secret of life — one thing.
Once
we find that one thing, nothing else really matters.
……………………………………………………………………………………..
Readers
of this blog might enjoy these books by Deacon Lex. Both are available on
Amazon.com:
Just
to Follow My Friend: Experiencing God’s Presence in Everyday Life
Synchronicity
as the Work of the Holy Spirit: Jungian Insights for Spiritual Direction and
Pastoral Ministry
Beautifully said Lex! We plant our "Flag" proverbially speaking, and stick by it, not difficult when you love Him...
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