Reflect today on how deep your love for God is

"You will 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." Mark 12: 30-31b

It is interesting to see how these two great commandments go together!

First of all, the commandment to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength is quite simple. The key to understanding it is that it is a consuming and total love. Nothing can be held back by loving God. Every part of our being must be completely dedicated to the love of God.

Although much can be said about that love to understand it ever more deeply, it is also important to see the link between the First and Second Commandments. Together, these two commandments summarize the ten commandments given by Moses. But the link between the two is essential to understand.

The Second Commandment says that you must "love your neighbor as yourself". So this begs the question, "How can I love myself?" The answer to this is found in the First Commandment. First of all, we love ourselves by loving God with all we have and all that we are. Loving God is the best thing we can do for ourselves and therefore is the key to loving ourselves.

The connection, therefore, between the two commandments is that loving our neighbor as we love ourselves means that everything we do for others should help them love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. This is done by our words, but above all by our influence.

When we love God with everything, our love for God will be contagious. Others will see our love for God, our passion for him, our desire for him, our devotion and our commitment. They will see it and be attracted to it. They will be attracted to it because the love of God is actually very attractive. Testifying this type of love inspires others and makes them want to imitate our love.

So reflect today on how deep your love for God is. Just as important, reflect on how well you make that love of God shine so that others can see it. You should be very free to let your love for God be lived and expressed in an open way. When you do this, others will see it and you will love them as you love yourself.

Lord, help me to follow these commandments of love. Help me to love you with all my being. And in that love for you, help me share that love with others. Jesus I believe in you.