"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." (Mt. 22: 37)

The debate about which was the first among the many commandments in the Scriptures was common in rabbinical schools at the time of Jesus. Jesus himself, who was considered a teacher, does not avoid the question when asked:

"Which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He answers in an original way, uniting love of God and love of neighbour. His disciples must never separate these two loves, just as the roots of a tree cannot be separated from its branches.

The more they love God, the greater the intensity of their love for their brothers and sisters; the more they love their brothers and sisters, the greater the depth of their love for God.

Jesus, as no other, knows the true nature of the God we must love, and knows how he is to be loved: God is his Father and our Father, his God and our God (cf John 20: 27).

He is a God who loves each human being personally; he loves you, he loves me; he is my God, he is your God ("You shall love the Lord your God").

And we can love Him because He loved us first: the love that is commanded of us is, therefore, a response to His love, to love itself. We can turn to God with the same trust and confidence that Jesus had when he called him "Abba. Father."

We too, like Jesus, can speak with him often, telling him our needs, our resolutions, our plans; we can tell him over and over again of our exclusive love for Him.

We too eagerly await the moment when we can come into deep contact with Him through prayer, which is dialogue, communion, a relationship of intense friendship. In those moments we can let our love really express itself, adoring Him beyond creation, glorifying Him present everywhere in the whole universe, praising Him in the depths of our hearts or living in tabernacles, thinking of Him present wherever we are, in our room, at work, in the office, while we meet with others...

Jesus also teaches us another way to love the Lord God. For Jesus, to love means doing the will of the Father, putting at his disposal mind, heart, energies and life itself: Jesus gave himself completely to the plan that the Father had for him.

The Gospel shows him to us as being always and totally turned towards the Father (cf. John 1: 18), always in the Father, always intent on saying solely what he heard from the Father, on carrying out only what the Father told him to do.

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind."

He asks the same of us: loving means doing the will of the Beloved, without half measures, with all our being: "with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind". Because love is not just a sentiment, and so Jesus asks those who love only with words "why do you call me 'Lord, Lord ', and do not do what I tell you?" (Luke 6: 46).

How then can we live this command of Jesus? Certainly by keeping ourselves in relationship with God as his children and friends, but above all by doing what he wants.

Our attitude towards God, like that of Jesus, will be that of always being turned towards the Father, listening to him, obeying him, so as to fulfil his work; only that and nothing else.

This demands that we be totally radical in our choices and way of life, because it is not possible to give God less than everything: all our heart, all our soul, all our mind. And this means to do well, entirely whatever He asks of us.

To live His will and be one with it, very often we will have to burn up our own will, sacrificing all that we have in our heart or mind that does not concern the present moment. It can be an idea, a feeling, a thought, a desire, a memory, an object, a person...

And so the whole of ourselves will be involved in what is asked of us in the present moment. To speak, telephone, listen, help, study, pray, eat, sleep, living His will without distraction: doing things in a complete way, clear cut, perfectly, with all our heart, soul and mind; having love as the one motive for every action, so that we can say in every moment of our day:

"Yes, my God, in this moment, in this action I love you with all my heart, with the whole of myself." Only in this way can we say that we love God, that we give love in return for his Love for us.

To live this Word of Life it will be useful, from time to time, to examine ourselves to see whether God is truly in the first place in our souls. And so, to conclude, what must we do this month?

Renew our choice of God as our only ideal, as the all of our life, putting him back in the first place, living His will with perfection in the present moment. We must be able to say to Him sincerely: "My God and my all", "I love You", "I am all yours", "You are God, you are my God, our God of infinite love!"

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