Our Response: Go and Do Likewise
“Love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
Matthew 22:37
Therefore, my brother, for this first step of the way in which He calls you to walk with Him, put your hands by faith into His hands, and, though you cannot see Him, let Him look into your eyes and read your heart, and transfer to Him the true surrender that you have learned in the path of the Brotherhood, and that without a fear or a misgiving, for He can make no mistake. A new and wonderful longing will arise in your heart to know and do His will. And not only will your own faith and love be established by going forth with Him, but it is by witnessing to Him that you will be able to draw others to seek His salvation. (The Way of the Sevenfold Secret)
Scripture: Matthew 22:37-40; 1 John 4:7-11
- What is the first and greatest commandment? What is the second commandment?
- What does Christ mean when He said: “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments”?
- How did God show His love to us?
What should our response be to God’s love?
Meditation on Scripture
Christ Himself enlarged upon the shepherds’ example with His teaching: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Christ called for nothing less than a total life response: heart, soul, mind. Second then, only to our love for God, comes the adjunction “to love your neighbor as yourself.”
The Apostle John, in a pastoral letter, speaks to the basis for our life response: “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” Our life response should be first to love God, because He first loved us, and then to love others as we have been loved.
Let our response be like that of the shepherds – a life response: spontaneous, wholehearted and immediate. Let us, likewise, witness and worship as we return from our quiet moments with Jesus to continue our assignment in the world.
What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a Shepherd,
I would bring Him a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man,
I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.
–Christina Rossetti
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