So many people express it so much better than I do, including Father Richard Rohr:
(“One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked, ‘Which is the first of the commandments?’ Jesus replied, ‘The first is this: You shall love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” – Mark 12:28-31.)
“Imagine how different the world would be if we just obeyed that one commandment to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. It would be the most mighty political and social upheaval imaginable. The world would be radically different if human beings really treated other people as they would like to be treated. We can take this as a simple rule of thumb: What would I want from that person right now? What would be helpful for me to receive? Well, there’s the commandment – our obligation to do for others!
It’s so simple that we can see why we put all our attention on the Ten Commandments, or the hundreds of other regulations culture and religion place on us. It’s much easier to worry about things that keep us ‘pure,’ so to speak, but are of little consequence….Concentrating on love takes just about our whole lifetime, so we won’t have much time left over to worry about what other people are doing or not doing, Our job is to love God, love ourselves, and love our neighbor.” – Richard Rohr
I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.
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